Colby Quarterly Colby Quarterly

Volume 38 Issue 1 March Article 6

March 2002

Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus

Donald Lateiner

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Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Colby Quarterly, Volume 38, no.1, March 2002, p.42-61

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Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459):The GriefofZeus

By DONALD LATEINER

ai~aTOEooas 8e \Vla8as KaTExevev Epal;elTalOa q>lAOV Tl~WV, TOV oi naTpoKAos E~EAAe

q>8loelv ev T POlTJ epl[3wAaKl TTlA08l naTPTlS.

[Zeus] poured bloody drops earthwards,honoring his own [beloved] son, whom Patroklos was soonto destroy in fertile Troy far from his homeland. 1

INTRODUCTION. Three violations of divine custom elnerge whenSarpedon son of Zeus dies in the first climactic catastrophe of the

Patrokleia, Iliad 16. Sorrowful Zeus considers altering Fate, aisa or moira;Zeus pours out/sheds/drips an extraordinary fluid, of signifying color, fromheaven to earth; and Zeus, who does not rescue him alive, honors his son bythese drops and by the divine translation of the corpse to Lykia. Criticismrightly discovers in this action Zeus' "humanity" and connectedness to themortals of the Trojan war. The verses, however, also allude to a fuller tale ofSarpedon in the epic tradition, and they imply Hellenic hero cult. The archaicreligious practices and context that ground this striking image offer an expla­nation of the rarely paralleled Homeric acts of mourning and unusual vocab­ulary (KaTaxecu, \Vlas, alllaToElS). Answering two important questionsabout vocabulary and two others about analogues in hero cult may explainthe anomalies.

1. What does Homer express by "bloody," alllaToeooas, since Zeus andthe Olympians have no red blood, and human tears rarely contain thatliquid?2 Further, why does Zeus pour bloody drops to honor his son?

2. What are these "drops," \VlaoES, and how does Zeus "pour" them? Isthe entire verse 16.459, or its ending, formulaic?

3. Do other Homeric events shape or echo this dramatic scene, unique inits vocabulary and acts?

4. Do early hero cult practices affect the composition, elaboration, andunderstanding of this passage?

1. Translations are generally taken from Richmond Lattimore's 1951 Iliad, lightly modified when neces­sary-as in this paper's title; and I took a phrase from Stanley Lombardo (1997).

2. Humans weep tears of blood when afflicted with the catastrophically fatal disease Ebola (Zaire);Preston (1994) 73. The striking image, therefore, is not impossibly unanthropomorphic.

42

Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459):The GriefofZeus

By DONALD LATEINER

ai~aTOEooas 8e \Vla8as KaTEXEvEV Epal;ElTalOa q>lAOV Tl~WV, TOV oi naTpoKAos E~EAAE

q>8l0ElV ev TPOlTJ epl[3wAaKl TTlA08l naTPTlS.

[Zeus] poured bloody drops earthwards,honoring his own [beloved] son, whom Patroklos was soonto destroy in fertile Troy far from his homeland. 1

INTRODUCTION. Three violations of divine custom elnerge whenSarpedon son of Zeus dies in the first climactic catastrophe of the

Patrokleia, Iliad 16. Sorrowful Zeus considers altering Fate, aisa or moira;Zeus pours out/sheds/drips an extraordinary fluid, of signifying color, fromheaven to earth; and Zeus, who does not rescue him alive, honors his son bythese drops and by the divine translation of the corpse to Lykia. Criticismrightly discovers in this action Zeus' "humanity" and connectedness to themortals of the Trojan war. The verses, however, also allude to a fuller tale ofSarpedon in the epic tradition, and they imply Hellenic hero cult. The archaicreligious practices and context that ground this striking image offer an expla­nation of the rarely paralleled Homeric acts of mourning and unusual vocab­ulary (KaTaxecu, \Vlas, alllaToElS). Answering two important questionsabout vocabulary and two others about analogues in hero cult may explainthe anomalies.

1. What does Homer express by "bloody," alllaToeooas, since Zeus andthe Olympians have no red blood, and human tears rarely contain thatliquid?2 Further, why does Zeus pour bloody drops to honor his son?

2. What are these "drops," \VlaoES, and how does Zeus "pour" them? Isthe entire verse 16.459, or its ending, formulaic?

3. Do other Homeric events shape or echo this dramatic scene, unique inits vocabulary and acts?

4. Do early hero cult practices affect the composition, elaboration, andunderstanding of this passage?

1. Translations are generally taken from Richmond Lattimore's 1951 Iliad, lightly modified when neces­sary-as in this paper's title; and I took a phrase from Stanley Lombardo (1997).

2. Humans weep tears of blood when afflicted with the catastrophically fatal disease Ebola (Zaire);Preston (1994) 73. The striking image, therefore, is not impossibly unanthropomorphic.

42

1

Lateiner: Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus

Published by Digital Commons @ Colby, 2002

DONALD LATEINER 43

One unique lliadic parallel portending general carnage appears earlier inthis day's battle (Il. 11.53-55, cf.1.3):

WpOE KaKOV KpOVlOT')S, KaTCx 0' U\V08EV llKEv EEpoasa'(~aTl ~voaAEas E~ ai8Epos, OVVEK' E~EAAElTOAACxS i<p8l~OVS KE<paACxS "A"ol lTPOtCx\VElV.

And the son of Kronos sent evil turmoil upon them, and from aloft castdown dews dripping blood from the sky, since he was mindedto hurl down many strong heads to the house of Hades.

Our thesis is that these "bloody drops" twice register Zeus' human-like affectin a way appropriate to his divine nature,3 but nowhere else does he pourbloody drops, or weep similar "tears of blood," even when he again grievesand considers an "illegitimate" rescue of Hektor (24.749-50), a favored andfrequently sacrificing hero (22.167-81). Sarpedon remains honored suigeneris. His end anticipates the deaths and various corpse-treatments ofPatroklos, Hektor, and even the post-lliadic deaths of Memnon andAkhilleus.4 Beyond the poetic level of Homer's poem, however, Sarpedonreflects cult in the making.

Iliad 16.459-61 portrays Zeus' emotional attachment to Lykian Sarpedon,his mortal son destined to die in battle at Troy.5 He ponders briefly whetherto stand idle in accord with doom or to snatch up (Harpy-like, avapno~aSt<apnot;w6) his living child from the (n.b.) tearful battle and return him tohis fatherland (16.433-38).

W ~Ol EyWV, 0 TE ~Ol LaplTT')Oova <plATaTov Cxvopwv~OlP' UlTO ITaTpoKAolO MEVOlTlCxoao oa~fival.

olx8Cx OE l.10l Kpaolll I.1EI.10VE <ppEolv 0pl.1alVOVTl,n I.1lV ~VJov EOVTa l.1aXllS alTO oaKpuoEoOllS8EiVJ CxvaplTCx~as AVKlllS EV lTlOVl 0111.1'+>,nnOll UlTO xEpol MEVOlTlCxoao Oal.1CxooVJ.

I'm miserable because Fate has it that Sarpedon, my favorite man,must be done to death by Menoites' son Patroklos.I am of two minds as my heart ponders:to snatch him up still living from tearful battleand put him down in the rich Lykian lands,or beat him down already under Patroklos' hands.

3. Zeus serves as god of all liquids that fall from the sky: rain, hail, snow, mists, etc., Iliad 5.91, 10.5-7,11.493, 12.278-80, and many passages elsewhere, e.g., Pausanias 1.32.2.

4. Fenik (1968) 231-40: "multiforms," Segal (1971) 18-19,48; Griffin (1980) 84-88; Vermeule (1979)169: "the only big snatch in the Iliad"; Janko (1992) 370-73: "local cult required" Sarpedon's death and return.

5. Pope (1715) translates: "Then touch'd with grief, the weeping heavens distill'd / A shower of bloodo'er all the fatal field." Lattimore (1951) offers: "Yet he wept tears of blood that fell to the ground for the sake/ of his beloved son." Fagles (1990) prints: "But he showered tears of blood that drenched the earth."Wilamowitz (1920) 135-38 defends the inclusion and explains the significance of Sarpedon for the Patrokleia.He writes that the unnatural event humanizes Zeus and displays his helplessness.

6. Segal (1983/1994) 104-5 relates the Harpies, the Odyssey's Seelenvogel soul-snatchers (1.240ff.=14.370ff.), to denials of kleos, fameless death, without the hero's monument (1.239=14.369):

T~ KEV oi niJ,l~OV J,lEV ETTOlnoav navaxaloL

DONALD LATEINER 43

One unique lliadic parallel portending general carnage appears earlier inthis day's battle (Il. 11.53-55, cf.1.3):

WpOE KaKOV KpOVlOT')S, KaTCx 0' U\V08EV llKEv EEpoasa'(~aTl ~voaAEas E~ ai8Epos, OVVEK' E~EAAElTOAACxS i<p8l~OVS KE<paACxS "A"ol lTPOtCx\VElV.

And the son of Kronos sent evil turmoil upon them, and from aloft castdown dews dripping blood from the sky, since he was mindedto hurl down many strong heads to the house of Hades.

Our thesis is that these "bloody drops" twice register Zeus' human-like affectin a way appropriate to his divine nature,3 but nowhere else does he pourbloody drops, or weep similar "tears of blood," even when he again grievesand considers an "illegitimate" rescue of Hektor (24.749-50), a favored andfrequently sacrificing hero (22.167-81). Sarpedon remains honored suigeneris. His end anticipates the deaths and various corpse-treatments ofPatroklos, Hektor, and even the post-lliadic deaths of Memnon andAkhilleus.4 Beyond the poetic level of Homer's poem, however, Sarpedonreflects cult in the making.

Iliad 16.459-61 portrays Zeus' emotional attachment to Lykian Sarpedon,his mortal son destined to die in battle at Troy.5 He ponders briefly whetherto stand idle in accord with doom or to snatch up (Harpy-like, avapno~aSt<apnot;w6) his living child from the (n.b.) tearful battle and return him tohis fatherland (16.433-38).

W ~Ol EyWV, 0 TE ~Ol LaplTT')Oova <plATaTov Cxvopwv~OlP' UlTO ITaTpoKAolO MEVOlTlCxoao oa~fival.

olx8Cx OE l.10l Kpaolll I.1EI.10VE <ppEolv 0pl.1alVOVTl,n I.1lV ~VJov EOVTa l.1aXllS alTO oaKpuoEoOllS8EiVJ CxvaplTCx~as AVKlllS EV lTlOVl 0111.1'+>,nnOll UlTO xEpol MEVOlTlCxoao Oal.1CxooVJ.

I'm miserable because Fate has it that Sarpedon, my favorite man,must be done to death by Menoites' son Patroklos.I am of two minds as my heart ponders:to snatch him up still living from tearful battleand put him down in the rich Lykian lands,or beat him down already under Patroklos' hands.

3. Zeus serves as god of all liquids that fall from the sky: rain, hail, snow, mists, etc., Iliad 5.91, 10.5-7,11.493, 12.278-80, and many passages elsewhere, e.g., Pausanias 1.32.2.

4. Fenik (1968) 231-40: "multiforms," Segal (1971) 18-19,48; Griffin (1980) 84-88; Vermeule (1979)169: "the only big snatch in the Iliad"; Janko (1992) 370-73: "local cult required" Sarpedon's death and return.

5. Pope (1715) translates: "Then touch'd with grief, the weeping heavens distill'd / A shower of bloodo'er all the fatal field." Lattimore (1951) offers: "Yet he wept tears of blood that fell to the ground for the sake/ of his beloved son." Fagles (1990) prints: "But he showered tears of blood that drenched the earth."Wilamowitz (1920) 135-38 defends the inclusion and explains the significance of Sarpedon for the Patrokleia.He writes that the unnatural event humanizes Zeus and displays his helplessness.

6. Segal (1983/1994) 104-5 relates the Harpies, the Odyssey's Seelenvogel soul-snatchers (1.240ff.=14.370ff.), to denials of kleos, fameless death, without the hero's monument (1.239=14.369):

T~ KEV oi niJ,l~OV J,lEV ETTOlnoav navaxaloL

2

Colby Quarterly, Vol. 38, Iss. 1 [2002], Art. 6

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cq/vol38/iss1/6

44 COLBY QUARTERLY

A willingness of Olympians even to consider interfering with impersonalDestiny strongly signals severe distress in Homeric epic. Actual violation ofFate (aloa, 1l0lpa: 6.487,2.155,20.336; cf. 17.327) happens exactly once,without agent specified, in a phrase describing Akhaian valor: "And then theAkhaians were more powerful, beyond their allotted fate" (16.780).7 In thepresent case, Here, who loathes Troy and its defenders, responds with vehe­ment anger to the voiced hypothetical. She argues logically that, if Zeusshould send Sarpedon home alive, other gods will want to save their sonsalso, since (and here she overstates her case, alleging that) "many sons of theimmortals" are engaged at Troy (Janko [1992] on lines 444-49 counts nine).She advises him rather to accept ai"sa (16. 440-57, esp. 450ff.), to letSarpedon die, but when the vital soul has left him (auTap eTInV on TOV yEAlTITJ ,+,uXrl TE Kal aiwv), to have him translated to Lykia where he willreceive ceremonious interment, the tomb and marker that honor the best ofmortals. Thus Sarpedon will have kleos, although his life will have ended (a"painful compromise," Stanley [1993] 174). Zeus, recognizing both the dan­ger of setting precedent and the presence of severe spousal pressure sup­ported by the existing rules, terminates the vain discussion about Olympiantheology and allows mortal Sarpedon to die (15.67, 16.438). His dividedheart, OlX8a KpaolTl, does not induce the chief god to refuse obedience toHere's behest and to violate destiny-an indication of Here's strong logic(ws e<paT', ouo' CeTT1STlOE TIaTnp Cevopwv TE 8EWV TE). He neverthelesssignals his aborted desire to act otherwise and his paternal distress by a non­natural event: "he poured bloody drops down on earth."8

7. Contemplation of Fate's decrees, e.g., 4.14-29, 16.440-43=22.179-81, 17.321-usually Zeus reconsid­ering, Athene or Here expostulating. "Beyond fate" (vTTEp aToav, 16.780) uniquely characterizes Patroklos'aristeia-"emphasis, not a theological doctrine," says Edwards (1991) 93. Hektor (6.487) expresses theinescapable path of fate. Lang (1989), Morrison (1992a), and Louden (1993) study the monumental poet'salternate narrative paths, the ones not taken, especially in counterfactual conditions.

8. Research for this paper began with a question from my former Slavicist colleague, Professor NatashaSankovitch, a Tolstoi scholar and Humanities teacher now practicing corporate law. Dr. Sankovitch helpedgather translations for an early version of this paper. She asked about the reading and discussed the meaning ofthe Greek text that Richmond Lattimore translates as Zeus' "tears of blood." Homer states explicitly, ratherlike a scholiast, that Olympian beings contain no blood (5.339-42):

TTpVJ,.lVOV VTTEp Sevapos' pEE 5' ci~I~POTOV aTJ,.la SEOlO,iX~p. oT6s TTEP TE pEEl J,.laKapEOOl 8EOlOlV'ou yap OlTOV l50vo', OU TTivovo' aieoTTa oTvov.TOVVEK' avaiJ,.lovEs Eiol Kal a8avaTol KaAEovTal.

[Diomedes nicked her] above the palm, and the goddess's immortal blood flowed­ichor, that is, the stuff that flows in the blessed gods.For they don't eat bread, they don't drink fiery wine,so they have no blood and are called "Deathless."

Zeus and Ares (5.870) are the only male gods who weep in Homer; cf. Monsacre (1984a) 137-96, esp. 228n.19; Arnould (1990) presciently omits 16.459. Aphrodite and Ares alone bleed or lose "immortal serum,"ciJ,.l~poToV aTJ,.la or iX~p (5.339-42, 416, 870). Aphrodite's peculiar wounding requires an ad hoc aetiologythat minimizes Olympians' "carnal aspects" (Kirk [1985] ad 2.96). Elsewhere only mortal creatures are bloody(~pOTOV aiJ,.laTOEvTa), while gods are bloodless and deathless repeatedly. Ikhor, the gods' bodily fluid,appears only twice and in the same Book 5, otherwise also of remarkable theology. Aphrodite's ikhor isdescribed as god-blood, her skin is darkened by the flow, with a phrase elsewhere used for blood darkeningTrojan earth (5.354, cf. 15.715,20.494: J,.lEAaivETo 5E xpoa KaAov). Dione wipes the bloodlike serum cleanfrom her daughter's wound (5.416). The human attributes of bloodflow communicate divinity's human-likepain and surface penetration. Levy (1979) and Andersen (1981) debate whether "divine mortality" in Iliad 5 is

44 COLBY QUARTERLY

A willingness of Olympians even to consider interfering with impersonalDestiny strongly signals severe distress in Homeric epic. Actual violation ofFate (aloa, 1l0lpa: 6.487,2.155,20.336; cf. 17.327) happens exactly once,without agent specified, in a phrase describing Akhaian valor: "And then theAkhaians were more powerful, beyond their allotted fate" (16.780).7 In thepresent case, Here, who loathes Troy and its defenders, responds with vehe­ment anger to the voiced hypothetical. She argues logically that, if Zeusshould send Sarpedon home alive, other gods will want to save their sonsalso, since (and here she overstates her case, alleging that) "many sons of theimmortals" are engaged at Troy (Janko [1992] on lines 444-49 counts nine).She advises him rather to accept ai"sa (16. 440-57, esp. 450ff.), to letSarpedon die, but when the vital soul has left him (auTap eTInV on TOV yEAlTITJ ,+,uXrl TE Kal aiwv), to have him translated to Lykia where he willreceive ceremonious interment, the tomb and marker that honor the best ofmortals. Thus Sarpedon will have kleos, although his life will have ended (a"painful compromise," Stanley [1993] 174). Zeus, recognizing both the dan­ger of setting precedent and the presence of severe spousal pressure sup­ported by the existing rules, terminates the vain discussion about Olympiantheology and allows mortal Sarpedon to die (15.67, 16.438). His dividedheart, OlX8a KpaolTl, does not induce the chief god to refuse obedience toHere's behest and to violate destiny-an indication of Here's strong logic(ws e<paT', ouo' CeTT1STlOE TIaTnp Cevopwv TE 8EWV TE). He neverthelesssignals his aborted desire to act otherwise and his paternal distress by a non­natural event: "he poured bloody drops down on earth."8

7. Contemplation of Fate's decrees, e.g., 4.14-29, 16.440-43=22.179-81, 17.321-usually Zeus reconsid­ering, Athene or Here expostulating. "Beyond fate" (vTTEp aToav, 16.780) uniquely characterizes Patroklos'aristeia-"emphasis, not a theological doctrine," says Edwards (1991) 93. Hektor (6.487) expresses theinescapable path of fate. Lang (1989), Morrison (1992a), and Louden (1993) study the monumental poet'salternate narrative paths, the ones not taken, especially in counterfactual conditions.

8. Research for this paper began with a question from my former Slavicist colleague, Professor NatashaSankovitch, a Tolstoi scholar and Humanities teacher now practicing corporate law. Dr. Sankovitch helpedgather translations for an early version of this paper. She asked about the reading and discussed the meaning ofthe Greek text that Richmond Lattimore translates as Zeus' "tears of blood." Homer states explicitly, ratherlike a scholiast, that Olympian beings contain no blood (5.339-42):

TTpVJ,.lVOV VTTEp Sevapos' pEE 5' ci~I~POTOV aTJ,.la SEOlO,iX~p. oT6s TTEP TE pEEl J,.laKapEOOl 8EOlOlV'ou yap OlTOV l50vo', OU TTivovo' aieoTTa oTvov.TOVVEK' avaiJ,.lovEs Eiol Kal a8avaTol KaAEovTal.

[Diomedes nicked her] above the palm, and the goddess's immortal blood flowed­ichor, that is, the stuff that flows in the blessed gods.For they don't eat bread, they don't drink fiery wine,so they have no blood and are called "Deathless."

Zeus and Ares (5.870) are the only male gods who weep in Homer; cf. Monsacre (1984a) 137-96, esp. 228n.19; Arnould (1990) presciently omits 16.459. Aphrodite and Ares alone bleed or lose "immortal serum,"ciJ,.l~poToV aTJ,.la or iX~p (5.339-42, 416, 870). Aphrodite's peculiar wounding requires an ad hoc aetiologythat minimizes Olympians' "carnal aspects" (Kirk [1985] ad 2.96). Elsewhere only mortal creatures are bloody(~pOTOV aiJ,.laTOEvTa), while gods are bloodless and deathless repeatedly. Ikhor, the gods' bodily fluid,appears only twice and in the same Book 5, otherwise also of remarkable theology. Aphrodite's ikhor isdescribed as god-blood, her skin is darkened by the flow, with a phrase elsewhere used for blood darkeningTrojan earth (5.354, cf. 15.715,20.494: J,.lEAaivETo 5E xpoa KaAov). Dione wipes the bloodlike serum cleanfrom her daughter's wound (5.416). The human attributes of bloodflow communicate divinity's human-likepain and surface penetration. Levy (1979) and Andersen (1981) debate whether "divine mortality" in Iliad 5 is

3

Lateiner: Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus

Published by Digital Commons @ Colby, 2002

DONALD LATEINER 45

Zeus' "bloody drops" and Apollo's later, unparalleled "rapture" of

Sarpedon's corpse9 present "breaches of realism" that open and close the

frame of the long battle presented in Iliad 11-16. The signs and wonders of

the death of Sarpedon achieve two only indirectly related goals. The scene

poetically evokes Zeus' intense engagement with earthly nl0rtality, and

Homer introduces the Ionic religious traditions of his audience's later age

into heroic conventions of oral epic (both topics are discussed below). These

drops, one previous bloody shower from Zeus, dead Sarpedon's sky-transla­

tion from Troyland, and Akhilleus' talking, weeping, and immortal wonder­

horses (16.459, 11.53-55; 16.676-83; 19.407-19; 17.426-40) constitute four

notable Homeric violations of the natural order. 10

Most contemporary critics minimize the miraculous, magical, and weird

elements in Homer's vocabulary and verses. 11 For example, Hainsworth

claims that "the supernatural does not mean gods. Gods are part of the natural

order, ... sorcery is completely absent from the action of the Iliad. ... [N]o

spells are cast or even mooted."12 So Aphrodite's amulet or love-charm for

Here must be explained as "oriental influence" (Janko [1992] ad 14.214-17)

a relic of a cruder stage of epic or ad hoc inventions suited to divine combat. "Bleeding" gods, anatomicallyincorrect, occur nowhere else, and ichor has no plausible etymology (Chantraine [1999] 474-75). Rare phrasesof uncertain formularity may equally well be ancient survivals or additions of the final bard. Akh. Tat. Kieit.and Leuk (7.4.5) echoes the blood/tears metaphor in describing strong sentiment: SaKpvov yap aT~a

Tpau~aTOS 'fNXiis. "tears are the blood of a soul's wound."9. Similarly, Aphrodite, "just as goddesses do," rescues Paris and Aineias, her favorites, alive from the

battlefield (3.380-82, 5.311-18). Poseidon saves Aineias (20.320-29), and Apollo saves Hektor (20.444).10. On the other hand, Homer reports many naturally occurring sky portents: an uncanny meteorite, a

Zeus-commanded typhoon, lightning, and possible eclipses (4.76-77; 16.384-92 [simile]; 2.353, 9.236; 16.567,17.268ff., 17.367; Od. 20.356-57). Janko (1992) IV ad 16.458-61 reports that he has in fact seen red dustdeposited by rain in Greece and England. He refers to Pritchett (1979), who refers to F. Krauss, AnInterpretation of the Omens, Portents, and Prodigies Recorded by Livy, Tacitus, and Suetonius (diss.Philadelphia, 1930), who cites C.G. Ehrenberg, Passatstaub und Blutregen (Abhandl. konig. Ak. der Wiss. zuBerlin 1847) 269-460, non vidi. Livy "records" ominous showers of blood (Krauss: 58-60) at 24.10.7, 34.45.6,39.46.5 & 56.5, 40.19.2, 42.20.5, 43.13.5. Cicero offers a tidy, rationalist deconstruction at de div. 2.27.58.nec enim sanguis nec sudor nisi e corpore. Contrast Artem. Oneirocr. 3.6.3, and see also de div. 1.43.98 withextensive ancient and modern examples and explanations collected in A.S. Pease's edition (Urbana, 1920 &1923). The most famous of reported pagan rain miracles is that represented on the column of Marcus Aurelius;see e.g., Rubin (1979) 357-80, Fowden (1987) 83-95. The folktale's miraculous rains of gnats, frogs, etc. aretheologized in the Biblical book of Exodos. Tatlock (1914) 442-47 offers chronicle comparanda from AD 685to 1349.

11. References to "seemliness and epic dignity" in "the severely unsupernatural/liadJ' (Edwards [1991]283) register contemporary displeasure with the fantastic Homer and an unrealistic Iliad (Johnston [1992] 95n.26). Elements of gross miracle, of the otherworldly and magical, in the Homeric epics include bizarre eventssuch as Earth laughing or the Sky-god pouring bloody drops. Rarity, when Homer is compared to other epictraditions, does not justify suppression (cf. Griffin [1980] 30-35, 145-56, 165-67). Whether early (as Rohde[1925] 84 n.28 thinks) or late developments, the literally marvellous episodes with Sarpedon reveal Zeus'pain. Two early Constantine Cavafy poems (1898 and 1896), "The Funeral of Sarpedon" and "The Horses ofAchilles," refigure uncanny Homeric moments. Michael Ondaatje in The English Patient (1992) 17 refers tothe same blood-red phenomenon as meteorological reality: "The harmattan blows across the Sahara filled withred dust, ... Red sand fogs out of the Sahara were deposited ... , producing showers of mud ... mistaken forblood. 'Blood rains were widely reported in Portugal and Spain in 1901.'" Such phenomena might haveinspired this Homeric passage, but we must control any Euhemerist inclinations in interpretating the Iliad'ssudden precipitation.

12. Hainsworth (1993) 474; Janko (1992) 1-7, "The Gods in Homer," endorsing Griffin infra. Griffin(1977) 40-43 mocks "the accommodating world of the Cycle" where heroes find heaven and death bothersmortals less (42). His later book, (1980) 147, 162-64, however, critiques inclinations to minimize the supernat­ural. Here Homer addresses gods and their prerogatives rather than weird elements active in the mortal realm(special weapons, monsters, invulnerability, etc.). He states (p. 165), "[t]he magical, the miraculous, and theuncanny, are confined within far stricter limits [in Homeric epic] than we find elsewhere."

DONALD LATEINER 45

Zeus' "bloody drops" and Apollo's later, unparalleled "rapture" of

Sarpedon's corpse9 present "breaches of realism" that open and close the

frame of the long battle presented in Iliad 11-16. The signs and wonders of

the death of Sarpedon achieve two only indirectly related goals. The scene

poetically evokes Zeus' intense engagement with earthly nl0rtality, and

Homer introduces the Ionic religious traditions of his audience's later age

into heroic conventions of oral epic (both topics are discussed below). These

drops, one previous bloody shower from Zeus, dead Sarpedon's sky-transla­

tion from Troyland, and Akhilleus' talking, weeping, and immortal wonder­

horses (16.459, 11.53-55; 16.676-83; 19.407-19; 17.426-40) constitute four

notable Homeric violations of the natural order. 10

Most contemporary critics minimize the miraculous, magical, and weird

elements in Homer's vocabulary and verses. 11 For example, Hainsworth

claims that "the supernatural does not mean gods. Gods are part of the natural

order, ... sorcery is completely absent from the action of the Iliad. ... [N]o

spells are cast or even mooted."12 So Aphrodite's amulet or love-charm for

Here must be explained as "oriental influence" (Janko [1992] ad 14.214-17)

a relic of a cruder stage of epic or ad hoc inventions suited to divine combat. "Bleeding" gods, anatomicallyincorrect, occur nowhere else, and ichor has no plausible etymology (Chantraine [1999] 474-75). Rare phrasesof uncertain formularity may equally well be ancient survivals or additions of the final bard. Akh. Tat. Kieit.and Leuk (7.4.5) echoes the blood/tears metaphor in describing strong sentiment: SaKpvov yap aT~a

Tpau~aTOS 'fNXiis. "tears are the blood of a soul's wound."9. Similarly, Aphrodite, "just as goddesses do," rescues Paris and Aineias, her favorites, alive from the

battlefield (3.380-82, 5.311-18). Poseidon saves Aineias (20.320-29), and Apollo saves Hektor (20.444).10. On the other hand, Homer reports many naturally occurring sky portents: an uncanny meteorite, a

Zeus-commanded typhoon, lightning, and possible eclipses (4.76-77; 16.384-92 [simile]; 2.353, 9.236; 16.567,17.268ff., 17.367; Od. 20.356-57). Janko (1992) IV ad 16.458-61 reports that he has in fact seen red dustdeposited by rain in Greece and England. He refers to Pritchett (1979), who refers to F. Krauss, AnInterpretation of the Omens, Portents, and Prodigies Recorded by Livy, Tacitus, and Suetonius (diss.Philadelphia, 1930), who cites C.G. Ehrenberg, Passatstaub und Blutregen (Abhandl. konig. Ak. der Wiss. zuBerlin 1847) 269-460, non vidi. Livy "records" ominous showers of blood (Krauss: 58-60) at 24.10.7, 34.45.6,39.46.5 & 56.5, 40.19.2, 42.20.5, 43.13.5. Cicero offers a tidy, rationalist deconstruction at de div. 2.27.58.nec enim sanguis nec sudor nisi e corpore. Contrast Artem. Oneirocr. 3.6.3, and see also de div. 1.43.98 withextensive ancient and modern examples and explanations collected in A.S. Pease's edition (Urbana, 1920 &1923). The most famous of reported pagan rain miracles is that represented on the column of Marcus Aurelius;see e.g., Rubin (1979) 357-80, Fowden (1987) 83-95. The folktale's miraculous rains of gnats, frogs, etc. aretheologized in the Biblical book of Exodos. Tatlock (1914) 442-47 offers chronicle comparanda from AD 685to 1349.

11. References to "seemliness and epic dignity" in "the severely unsupernatural/liadJ' (Edwards [1991]283) register contemporary displeasure with the fantastic Homer and an unrealistic Iliad (Johnston [1992] 95n.26). Elements of gross miracle, of the otherworldly and magical, in the Homeric epics include bizarre eventssuch as Earth laughing or the Sky-god pouring bloody drops. Rarity, when Homer is compared to other epictraditions, does not justify suppression (cf. Griffin [1980] 30-35, 145-56, 165-67). Whether early (as Rohde[1925] 84 n.28 thinks) or late developments, the literally marvellous episodes with Sarpedon reveal Zeus'pain. Two early Constantine Cavafy poems (1898 and 1896), "The Funeral of Sarpedon" and "The Horses ofAchilles," refigure uncanny Homeric moments. Michael Ondaatje in The English Patient (1992) 17 refers tothe same blood-red phenomenon as meteorological reality: "The harmattan blows across the Sahara filled withred dust, ... Red sand fogs out of the Sahara were deposited ... , producing showers of mud ... mistaken forblood. 'Blood rains were widely reported in Portugal and Spain in 1901.'" Such phenomena might haveinspired this Homeric passage, but we must control any Euhemerist inclinations in interpretating the Iliad'ssudden precipitation.

12. Hainsworth (1993) 474; Janko (1992) 1-7, "The Gods in Homer," endorsing Griffin infra. Griffin(1977) 40-43 mocks "the accommodating world of the Cycle" where heroes find heaven and death bothersmortals less (42). His later book, (1980) 147, 162-64, however, critiques inclinations to minimize the supernat­ural. Here Homer addresses gods and their prerogatives rather than weird elements active in the mortal realm(special weapons, monsters, invulnerability, etc.). He states (p. 165), "[t]he magical, the miraculous, and theuncanny, are confined within far stricter limits [in Homeric epic] than we find elsewhere."

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or dismissed as not in the "action," or shunted aside as not sorcery becausedivine and not human. Hektor's preternatural strength of two men in launch­ing large stones becomes "one of the rare breaches of realism in the Iliad"(Hainsworth 1993 ad 12.449; cf. 5.304, 20.287). The list of these noteworthyexceptions to the rule, these non-natural phenomena in Homer, grows longer.We turn back to the four questions posed above.

1. Blood-stained or blood-red?-Iliad 16.459 (and the dew at 11.53-54)stand as Homeric isolates for divine, bloody outpouring. 13 A\i..laTOElS else­where characterizes wounded mortals (16.349, 17.298), corpses, or the dustthat battle casualties foul (13.393 = 16.486): "covered, stained, or mingledwith blood." It also describes ravening mortal animals (16.162, 17.541-42)and their human equivalents, ~poToi, mortal warriors seeking victims. Thesynecdochic word defines mortal combat by its product (9.650, 19.313).14 Allother passages refer plainly to the sticky red fluid circulating peacefully invertebrates' vascular systems.

Blood commands powers for both pollution and cleansing in beliefs andrites.I5 There are taboos against blood's presence (such as kosher butchery,Greek asylum), demands for blood's presence as in live animal sacrifices,limited human bloodletting (e.g., brotherhood rites), and, in some situations,bloody human sacrifice. One type of blood ritual, a blood offering that is nota prelude to eating, Greek sphagia, occurs in three situations: at purifications,just before battle,16 and at burials of the dead. 17 We note that two of thesethree situations for archaic generic blood offerings apply to the "bloodydrops" that Zeus poured out for Sarpedon.

The Homeric ritual blood flows into tidy bowls, or on an altar, or in alarge sanctuary before a new day's combat starts or before a pair of newadversaries begin to fight. 18 Post-Homeric historical sphagia before battlesimilarly expressed and allayed human anxieties. These later sacrifices werehuman acts to placate, supplicate, and propitiate the gods. 19 Such concernsand purposes cannot be those of the god Zeus for Sarpedon, nor does Zeus

13. Thersites 9 whipped welts (O~~Bl~ only here and 23.716) suggest real blood pooling beneath the skin.14. Cunliffe, S.v. Statistics are drawn from the OCT editions of D.B. Monro and T.W. Allen IliatP (1912)

and Odyssey2 (1916), the concordances of G.L. Prendergast (1875) and H. Dunbar-B. Marzullo (1880, rev. ed.1971), Gehring's Index Homericus (1891), and the lexica of R.J. Cunliffe (1924) and H. Ebeling (1880). Theadjective occurs 18 times in the Iliad, once in the Odyssey (22.405), the gore on Odysseus after the suitors'lliadic slaughter. The ace. fern. plural form appears only here and in the parallel passage in pseudo-Hesiod(below)-the only occurrence in a wholly repeated line-absent from Schmidt Parallel-Homer (1885) but cf.Dee VH (2001) 82. Only at 16.459 and at 2.267 (Thersites' blood-red weal) can one weakly translate it as "thecolour of blood."

15. Douglas (1966) offers an anthropologist's modern comparanda.16. At least in post-Homeric examples, it provides a "manageable slaughter," a beginning of bloodshed, a

"premonitory anticipation of ... unforeseeable dangers" (Burkert [1985] 59-60).17. Akhilleus employs animal and human blood sacrifice at rituals for Patroklos' funeral pyre. The animal

"blood flows around the corpse by cupfuls" (23.34: hapax KOTVAnpUTOV), perhaps to be poured in cups forthe dead man-but no bothron or pit here, as in the clearer blood rituals for the dead in Hades, Od. 11.23-50.Hero cult was based on cult of the dead and the chthonic gods (Rohde [1925] 116).

18. 11.53-55 and 16.459; heroes and horses are bloodied at 16.333, 349,486, 518, 529, 667, etc.19. They are not "blood-tests" or inquiries of the gods' will. Pritchett (1971) I, 109-15, and (1979) III, 83­

90 offers later evidence. Blood-flow provides divination in some few battlefield contexts (ibid. [1979] 85, Eur.£1. 509-15).

46 COLBY QUARTERLY

or dismissed as not in the "action," or shunted aside as not sorcery becausedivine and not human. Hektor's preternatural strength of two men in launch­ing large stones becomes "one of the rare breaches of realism in the Iliad"(Hainsworth 1993 ad 12.449; cf. 5.304, 20.287). The list of these noteworthyexceptions to the rule, these non-natural phenomena in Homer, grows longer.We turn back to the four questions posed above.

1. Blood-stained or blood-red?-Iliad 16.459 (and the dew at 11.53-54)stand as Homeric isolates for divine, bloody outpouring. 13 A\i..laTOElS else­where characterizes wounded mortals (16.349, 17.298), corpses, or the dustthat battle casualties foul (13.393 = 16.486): "covered, stained, or mingledwith blood." It also describes ravening mortal animals (16.162, 17.541-42)and their human equivalents, ~poToi, mortal warriors seeking victims. Thesynecdochic word defines mortal combat by its product (9.650, 19.313).14 Allother passages refer plainly to the sticky red fluid circulating peacefully invertebrates' vascular systems.

Blood commands powers for both pollution and cleansing in beliefs andrites.I5 There are taboos against blood's presence (such as kosher butchery,Greek asylum), demands for blood's presence as in live animal sacrifices,limited human bloodletting (e.g., brotherhood rites), and, in some situations,bloody human sacrifice. One type of blood ritual, a blood offering that is nota prelude to eating, Greek sphagia, occurs in three situations: at purifications,just before battle,16 and at burials of the dead. 17 We note that two of thesethree situations for archaic generic blood offerings apply to the "bloodydrops" that Zeus poured out for Sarpedon.

The Homeric ritual blood flows into tidy bowls, or on an altar, or in alarge sanctuary before a new day's combat starts or before a pair of newadversaries begin to fight. 18 Post-Homeric historical sphagia before battlesimilarly expressed and allayed human anxieties. These later sacrifices werehuman acts to placate, supplicate, and propitiate the gods. 19 Such concernsand purposes cannot be those of the god Zeus for Sarpedon, nor does Zeus

13. Thersites 9 whipped welts (O~~Bl~ only here and 23.716) suggest real blood pooling beneath the skin.14. Cunliffe, S.v. Statistics are drawn from the OCT editions of D.B. Monro and T.W. Allen IliatP (1912)

and Odyssey2 (1916), the concordances of G.L. Prendergast (1875) and H. Dunbar-B. Marzullo (1880, rev. ed.1971), Gehring's Index Homericus (1891), and the lexica of R.J. Cunliffe (1924) and H. Ebeling (1880). Theadjective occurs 18 times in the Iliad, once in the Odyssey (22.405), the gore on Odysseus after the suitors'lliadic slaughter. The ace. fern. plural form appears only here and in the parallel passage in pseudo-Hesiod(below)-the only occurrence in a wholly repeated line-absent from Schmidt Parallel-Homer (1885) but cf.Dee VH (2001) 82. Only at 16.459 and at 2.267 (Thersites' blood-red weal) can one weakly translate it as "thecolour of blood."

15. Douglas (1966) offers an anthropologist's modern comparanda.16. At least in post-Homeric examples, it provides a "manageable slaughter," a beginning of bloodshed, a

"premonitory anticipation of ... unforeseeable dangers" (Burkert [1985] 59-60).17. Akhilleus employs animal and human blood sacrifice at rituals for Patroklos' funeral pyre. The animal

"blood flows around the corpse by cupfuls" (23.34: hapax KOTVAnpUTOV), perhaps to be poured in cups forthe dead man-but no bothron or pit here, as in the clearer blood rituals for the dead in Hades, Od. 11.23-50.Hero cult was based on cult of the dead and the chthonic gods (Rohde [1925] 116).

18. 11.53-55 and 16.459; heroes and horses are bloodied at 16.333, 349,486, 518, 529, 667, etc.19. They are not "blood-tests" or inquiries of the gods' will. Pritchett (1971) I, 109-15, and (1979) III, 83­

90 offers later evidence. Blood-flow provides divination in some few battlefield contexts (ibid. [1979] 85, Eur.£1. 509-15).

5

Lateiner: Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus

Published by Digital Commons @ Colby, 2002

DONALD LATEINER 47

save his son (15.67, 16.438), but he expresses strong emotion and performsgrieving rituals. Homer has Zeus merge human pre-battle propitiatory bloodrituals and post-battle burial blood rituals with human grieving to expressanthropomorphic parental agony. Thus the word "bloody" in this passagerecalls Homeric pre-combat ritual, and then Sarpedon's future honors as acultic hero are anticipated (pre-echoed?) by the poured precipitation miracle.

Zeus surpasses the usual human rituals to mark a son's special death andremoval from living, as-on the human level-Akhilleus will do forPatroklos (a surrogate son), and as the Trojans will do for Hektor. All threesplendid honorings of the dead express the survivors' sense of responsibilityor guilt because they could not protect the talismanic warrior. The blood ofritual slaughter betokens more human slaughter; the bloody drops of Zeusconnote the same sympathy and expectation of blood. The "bloody drops"honor the victim and portend more blood.2o

2. Raindrops or tears?-The noun \YlelS occurs nowhere but here inHomer.21 Janko (ad loc.) cites the pseudo-Hesiodic Aspis 383-85 that exhibitsthe same rare words for "bloody drops" in a very similar pre-combat formulain a similarly Zeus-dominated context:

~Eya 0' EKTvne ~T'\T(eTa Zev).KOO 0' ap' an' ovpav66ev 'VlC10a) ~aAev ai~aToEaaa),

aTi~a Tl6el) nOAE~olO e4l ~eya6apael nalOl.

Deviser Zeus loudly thundered.And threw down from heaven bloody drops,communicating an omen of battle for his courageous son.

The presence of combat scene and a "traditional" mourning motif (sic, Janko1992) in this later (ca. 570?) oral epic marks a formula restricted, in extantepic, to the grief of Zeus. The pseudo-Hesiodic passage (perhaps borrowed)confirms that the bloody drops signal the end of a heroic life, and perhapsevoke echoes of pre-battle sacrifice and honor to Zeus' close kin.

\.fJlelS may be cognate to \yOKelS, a word Aiskhylos applies to rain andblood showers.22 No one in Ilion notices the bloody drops, although in many

20. "Rains of blood" are generally bad omens for the Romans, who experienced more of them. Cf. n. 10.21. The phrase "tears of blood" appeals to English translators. Translationsl interpretations include "shed

bloody raindrops" (Lang & Leaf 1900), "blood rain" (Hammond 1987), "distilled a sanguine shower"(Cowper), "wept a shower of bloody tears" (Rees 1963). Fitzgerald (1974) notably translates: "but showeredbloody drops upon the earth" and Lombardo (1997) renders: "shed drops of blood as rain." Weeping is lexi­cally absent but conceptually relevant here along with other associated miracles, loss of precious fluids, andsacrifice.

22. E.g., Ag. 1390. \f"t<XS, Homeric hapax, appears in Hesykhios' glossary (5th c. CE?; ed. Schmidt[1861]) with \VlOES, \VlaoES, \VaKaoES; \VlaKa, \VaKaOa, \Vla~EI, \VaKa~EI. Hesykhios connected \VIas topavloES (dewdrops, rain, or semen), providing perhaps the ultimate source of any "weeping" over-translation.Sappho's \VlOOOIJEVa ("weeping," see below) offers one later understanding of the root. These words may becognates and share a basic sense. Boisacq (195<>4) and Frisk (1973) relate the Homeric word to \VlCU/ \Vl~CU,"chop into bits," also "feed with milk or with pap," (<IE *bzhi). Boisacq and Chaintraine (1999) hesitantlyalso think it is related to \Vacu, "crumble." Ebeling (1880) opined: origo incerta: gutta. It is perhaps also cog­nate with lTTVCU and English "spit." One may also examine in Stephanus TLG (1572) the entries of the Suda(\VEKaOES), Etym. Magn. 818.45 [Herodian and Philoxenos], and Eustathios 1071.3. Derivation and semanticsremain uncertain. Chantraine (1999) 1291 cautiously speaks of "un vocabulaire ou I'expressivite a ete crea­trice." Neither Chaintraine nor Frisk connect it to Sappho's \VloOOIJEVa (F 94.2), "weeping," althoughHesykhios glosses \Vl~OIJEV'" as ~alovoa (cf. E\VlOEV, \VlvOEo6al [?]; D. Page Sappho and Alcaeus (1955b)

DONALD LATEINER 47

save his son (15.67, 16.438), but he expresses strong emotion and performsgrieving rituals. Homer has Zeus merge human pre-battle propitiatory bloodrituals and post-battle burial blood rituals with human grieving to expressanthropomorphic parental agony. Thus the word "bloody" in this passagerecalls Homeric pre-combat ritual, and then Sarpedon's future honors as acultic hero are anticipated (pre-echoed?) by the poured precipitation miracle.

Zeus surpasses the usual human rituals to mark a son's special death andremoval from living, as-on the human level-Akhilleus will do forPatroklos (a surrogate son), and as the Trojans will do for Hektor. All threesplendid honorings of the dead express the survivors' sense of responsibilityor guilt because they could not protect the talismanic warrior. The blood ofritual slaughter betokens more human slaughter; the bloody drops of Zeusconnote the same sympathy and expectation of blood. The "bloody drops"honor the victim and portend more blood.2o

2. Raindrops or tears?-The noun \YlelS occurs nowhere but here inHomer.21 Janko (ad loc.) cites the pseudo-Hesiodic Aspis 383-85 that exhibitsthe same rare words for "bloody drops" in a very similar pre-combat formulain a similarly Zeus-dominated context:

~Eya 0' EKTvne ~T'\T(eTa Zev).KOO 0' ap' an' ovpav66ev 'VlC10a) ~aAev ai~aToEaaa),

aTi~a Tl6el) nOAE~olO e4l ~eya6apael nalOl.

Deviser Zeus loudly thundered.And threw down from heaven bloody drops,communicating an omen of battle for his courageous son.

The presence of combat scene and a "traditional" mourning motif (sic, Janko1992) in this later (ca. 570?) oral epic marks a formula restricted, in extantepic, to the grief of Zeus. The pseudo-Hesiodic passage (perhaps borrowed)confirms that the bloody drops signal the end of a heroic life, and perhapsevoke echoes of pre-battle sacrifice and honor to Zeus' close kin.

\.fJlelS may be cognate to \yOKelS, a word Aiskhylos applies to rain andblood showers.22 No one in Ilion notices the bloody drops, although in many

20. "Rains of blood" are generally bad omens for the Romans, who experienced more of them. Cf. n. 10.21. The phrase "tears of blood" appeals to English translators. Translationsl interpretations include "shed

bloody raindrops" (Lang & Leaf 1900), "blood rain" (Hammond 1987), "distilled a sanguine shower"(Cowper), "wept a shower of bloody tears" (Rees 1963). Fitzgerald (1974) notably translates: "but showeredbloody drops upon the earth" and Lombardo (1997) renders: "shed drops of blood as rain." Weeping is lexi­cally absent but conceptually relevant here along with other associated miracles, loss of precious fluids, andsacrifice.

22. E.g., Ag. 1390. \f"t<XS, Homeric hapax, appears in Hesykhios' glossary (5th c. CE?; ed. Schmidt[1861]) with \VlOES, \VlaoES, \VaKaoES; \VlaKa, \VaKaOa, \Vla~EI, \VaKa~EI. Hesykhios connected \VIas topavloES (dewdrops, rain, or semen), providing perhaps the ultimate source of any "weeping" over-translation.Sappho's \VlOOOIJEVa ("weeping," see below) offers one later understanding of the root. These words may becognates and share a basic sense. Boisacq (195<>4) and Frisk (1973) relate the Homeric word to \VlCU/ \Vl~CU,"chop into bits," also "feed with milk or with pap," (<IE *bzhi). Boisacq and Chaintraine (1999) hesitantlyalso think it is related to \Vacu, "crumble." Ebeling (1880) opined: origo incerta: gutta. It is perhaps also cog­nate with lTTVCU and English "spit." One may also examine in Stephanus TLG (1572) the entries of the Suda(\VEKaOES), Etym. Magn. 818.45 [Herodian and Philoxenos], and Eustathios 1071.3. Derivation and semanticsremain uncertain. Chantraine (1999) 1291 cautiously speaks of "un vocabulaire ou I'expressivite a ete crea­trice." Neither Chaintraine nor Frisk connect it to Sappho's \VloOOIJEVa (F 94.2), "weeping," althoughHesykhios glosses \Vl~OIJEV'" as ~alovoa (cf. E\VlOEV, \VlvOEo6al [?]; D. Page Sappho and Alcaeus (1955b)

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48 COLBY QUARTERLY

other weather passages, Zeus' portents frighten or cause joy among observantbystanders.23 The anticipatory shower sheds a grisly, ill-omened grace-end­less killing for the Iiving, translation to heroic veneration for Zeus' sonSarpedon. That is to say, there are negative and positive consequences por­tended by the divine sign. Indeed, KaTaXEw appears in Patroklos' tear sim­ile, in the anointing of immortal horses with oil, and divinities' dripping "anenchantment of grace" on transfigured heroes (16.4 = 9.15,23.282; Ode 2.12= 17.63 [Telemakhos]; 6.235,8.19 [Odysseus]), or when a mortal pours liba­tions, including blood sacrifices, for the powerful dead at the grave, doublingas an altar.24

Simplex XEW and compounds describe the "shedding, pouring, scattering,and flowing" of various vital fluids: rain (16.385); cold mists or snow(17.270,12.281,3.10); metaphorical mists of sleep or death (aXAvs: 14.165,16.344,414,580; 13.544, 5.696); dust (18.24); solemn libations (7.480,23.220; Ode 10.518, 11.26); and human tears (1.357, 9.15, 16.3-4,24.385),especially at funerals where they shape an essential ritual formula (Garland[1982] 77, Ode 10.518, 11.26: xonv XElo8al lTaOlV vEKueoolv, festivals ofthe dead?)-all of which 16.459 echoes.25 XEW occurs elsewhere in funeralcult and heavenly and chthonic rituals.26 Zeus' "pouring drops upon" providesthe crucial KaTaXEw compound in Book 16 (ten XEw-forms occur: 4, 123,259,267,295,344,414,459,471,580). Variants sometimes refer to sky phe­nomena such as rain from the Rain-God (16.385; cf. 5.91, 12.286). (KaTa)oaKpv(a) xeovoa(v) is a very common lliadic weeping formula for humans(9x; cf. oaKpvXEw, 13x). Therefore, the formula recalls weeping at the sametime as the poet activates other associations with weather portents, divine dis­pensations, human pre-battle sacrifice, and postmortem heroic libation.

Zeus can weep, we learn, as do Ares, immortal Artemis, the sea nymphs,and Thetis (16.493, 18.66, 1.413). The easy life of gods, pela S~ovTes

(6.138, Ode 4.805,5.122), does not prevent conflict, or emotions like shame,anger, fury, and grief, emotional displays like shrieking (5.343: IlEyalaxovaa; cf. 21.328), and even wounds. Bloodlike tears-perhaps "tears aslarge as gouts ofblood"-emphasize Zeus' loss; it is a marvellous and sympa­thetic medium of display singling out the corpse-to-be. Sarpedon's henchman

77 and LSP S.v. Pindar's (01.2.66-68) rewarded heroes, like the gods, enjoy an existence without tears afterdeath (aOoKpvv VEIJOVTal aiwva). Tearlessness partly equates to immortality. Hesykhios' original Lexiconhas been severely abridged to a glossary, so he may not gloss this verse of Homer or indeed know anythingmore about the word. Homer's humanization of reddish rain recalls Aristophanes (Nub. 369-73) comicdescription of rain as Zeus' urine, "pissing through a sieve." The hexameter verse suggests "the strange situa­tion of a god offering hero-worship to a mortal" (as a reader worried), an oddity suited to an odd passage, butsee below, section 4, "Reflection of Hero Cult."

23. E.g., 2.350-53, 4.381, 7.479,8.75-77,9.236-37,15.377-80,17.595-96, and Od. 20.103 & 113,21.413­15, but Here and Athene's thunder at 11.245, similarly unremarked, intends honor for Agamemnon.N:igelsbach (1884) 159-63, esp.161-62, discusses bloody drops.

24. Cf. Xecu- stems in Aiskh. Kho. 129, 149, 156, 400-02; Paus. 10.4.10. l\ei(3cu likewise denotes tears(13.88,658), even for the dead, and libations of wine (6.266, 16.231).

25. Editor Roisman notes Aiskh. Ag. 239: Iphigenia "pours" her yellow mantle to the ground at Aulis.26. The metaphor of pouring prayers, like a libation, appears in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin poetry. Kurke

(1989) 116-17; cf. Pind. Pyth. 5.98, Isthm. 6.1-9; Verg. Aen. 5.238 with 6.55:funditque preces.

48 COLBY QUARTERLY

other weather passages, Zeus' portents frighten or cause joy among observantbystanders.23 The anticipatory shower sheds a grisly, ill-omened grace-end­less killing for the Iiving, translation to heroic veneration for Zeus' sonSarpedon. That is to say, there are negative and positive consequences por­tended by the divine sign. Indeed, KaTaXEw appears in Patroklos' tear sim­ile, in the anointing of immortal horses with oil, and divinities' dripping "anenchantment of grace" on transfigured heroes (16.4 = 9.15,23.282; Ode 2.12= 17.63 [Telemakhos]; 6.235,8.19 [Odysseus]), or when a mortal pours liba­tions, including blood sacrifices, for the powerful dead at the grave, doublingas an altar.24

Simplex XEW and compounds describe the "shedding, pouring, scattering,and flowing" of various vital fluids: rain (16.385); cold mists or snow(17.270,12.281,3.10); metaphorical mists of sleep or death (aXAvs: 14.165,16.344,414,580; 13.544, 5.696); dust (18.24); solemn libations (7.480,23.220; Ode 10.518, 11.26); and human tears (1.357, 9.15, 16.3-4,24.385),especially at funerals where they shape an essential ritual formula (Garland[1982] 77, Ode 10.518, 11.26: xonv XElo8al lTaOlV vEKueoolv, festivals ofthe dead?)-all of which 16.459 echoes.25 XEW occurs elsewhere in funeralcult and heavenly and chthonic rituals.26 Zeus' "pouring drops upon" providesthe crucial KaTaXEw compound in Book 16 (ten XEw-forms occur: 4, 123,259,267,295,344,414,459,471,580). Variants sometimes refer to sky phe­nomena such as rain from the Rain-God (16.385; cf. 5.91, 12.286). (KaTa)oaKpv(a) xeovoa(v) is a very common lliadic weeping formula for humans(9x; cf. oaKpvXEw, 13x). Therefore, the formula recalls weeping at the sametime as the poet activates other associations with weather portents, divine dis­pensations, human pre-battle sacrifice, and postmortem heroic libation.

Zeus can weep, we learn, as do Ares, immortal Artemis, the sea nymphs,and Thetis (16.493, 18.66, 1.413). The easy life of gods, pela S~ovTes

(6.138, Ode 4.805,5.122), does not prevent conflict, or emotions like shame,anger, fury, and grief, emotional displays like shrieking (5.343: IlEyalaxovaa; cf. 21.328), and even wounds. Bloodlike tears-perhaps "tears aslarge as gouts ofblood"-emphasize Zeus' loss; it is a marvellous and sympa­thetic medium of display singling out the corpse-to-be. Sarpedon's henchman

77 and LSP S.v. Pindar's (01.2.66-68) rewarded heroes, like the gods, enjoy an existence without tears afterdeath (aOoKpvv VEIJOVTal aiwva). Tearlessness partly equates to immortality. Hesykhios' original Lexiconhas been severely abridged to a glossary, so he may not gloss this verse of Homer or indeed know anythingmore about the word. Homer's humanization of reddish rain recalls Aristophanes (Nub. 369-73) comicdescription of rain as Zeus' urine, "pissing through a sieve." The hexameter verse suggests "the strange situa­tion of a god offering hero-worship to a mortal" (as a reader worried), an oddity suited to an odd passage, butsee below, section 4, "Reflection of Hero Cult."

23. E.g., 2.350-53, 4.381, 7.479,8.75-77,9.236-37,15.377-80,17.595-96, and Od. 20.103 & 113,21.413­15, but Here and Athene's thunder at 11.245, similarly unremarked, intends honor for Agamemnon.N:igelsbach (1884) 159-63, esp.161-62, discusses bloody drops.

24. Cf. Xecu- stems in Aiskh. Kho. 129, 149, 156, 400-02; Paus. 10.4.10. l\ei(3cu likewise denotes tears(13.88,658), even for the dead, and libations of wine (6.266, 16.231).

25. Editor Roisman notes Aiskh. Ag. 239: Iphigenia "pours" her yellow mantle to the ground at Aulis.26. The metaphor of pouring prayers, like a libation, appears in Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin poetry. Kurke

(1989) 116-17; cf. Pind. Pyth. 5.98, Isthm. 6.1-9; Verg. Aen. 5.238 with 6.55:funditque preces.

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DONALD LATEINER 49

Glaukos' "real" blood also appears several times.27 The distinction between

unaging gods and miserable humans collapses in 16.459 to enhance Zeus'

intermittent "humanity."28 He sorrows like a human; the drops make him both

like men pouring libations to the gods and like men weeping over their afflic­

tions.29

Both males and females, gods and mortals, shed Homeric tears.30 Tears in

Homer express constructive forces or strong emotion more often than weak­

ness.31 They are 8aAepa (lusty, blooming, moist, and large),32 for example,

those of Andromakhe, Akhilleus, and the Trojans (6.496; 24.9, 794). They

are 8epIJa (warm or hot), for example, those of Trojans, Akhilleus, his

horses, and Antilokhos (7.426, 16.3, 17.438, 18.17). Blood, too, is thermon(11.266) and life-sustaining. Like Zeus' bright dew, human tears are a vital

fluid (cf. 11.53 above; or Zeus and Here's hieros gamos fertility ritual,

14.347-51; 23.598; Od.13.245).33 As tears drain from a man, so does his life

(Od.5.151-53):

TOV 0' ap' En' OKTiiS EVpE Ka6f]IJEVoV· oUOE nOT' OOOEoaKpv6<ptV TEpoovTo, KaTEi13ETO oe yAVKuS aiwvv60Tov 60vpoIJEv~.

[Kalypso] found him then at the point, and his eyes neverwere wiped dry of tears, as his sweet life flowed outof him, grieving for a trip home.

27. 16.486, 518, 529, 639, 667; see further in bloody Book 16: 159, 162, 333, 349, 796, 841.28. Another boundary collapse characterizes the usually phlegmatic Ares' agitated vows to avenge his son

Askalaphos' death (13.518-22). He, unlike any other god, slaps his thighs and risks "death" by Zeus' thunder­bolt, even in the blood and dust of [human] corpses: KElo8al 6~ou VEKUEOOl ~Ee' a'l~aTl Kal KOVlUOlV(15.118). The act of a god mixing with corpses violates a strict boundary-tabu, transgression of dividedrealms.

29. The "bloodlike" drops resemble the bloody meat and tears, ominous of imminent destruction for thepossessed Odyssean suitors (20.347-49). Homer flags plot crisis by pace-retarding, freakish blood-visions.

30. van Wees (1998) surveys the "history" of Hellenic tears; pp. 11-16 review Homer's weeping warriorsand wives. Gender ndes, outside of mourning rituals, have not yet made miserable.Homeric tears unmanly.Deathless gods have other human attributes: Here sweats; Aphrodite screams; she and Ares shed bodily fluids

.when stabbed (5.339-343, 855-62, 870); Ares collapses (391, 886); baby Dionysos trembles at a man (6.137);Artemis twists in pain and weeps (21.493: BaKpvoEooa); Ares despoils corpses (5.840). Gods appear so simi­lar to humans in size, shape, aura, and behavior that warriors fail to perceive whom they are attacking (5.183,etc.). Zeus wildly accuses Here of inclinations to eat raw human flesh, an insult of impossibility (cf.Combellack [1981]). Many of these nonverbal acts occur only once. Andersen (1981) 324 regards thesemoments as ad hoc enrichments of the plot, not relics of earlier theology (contra Levy [1979] 215, 217).

31. Compare Zeus' effusion with the agony (tv ayc..>vlc;d of Jesus (Luke 22:44). He pra"ys and sweatpours down him like clots of blood to the ground: tytVETO BE iBp~S aVTOV wod· epO~~Ol a'l~aTosKaTai3aivovol hTl TJ1V yiiv. Sweat (Here, 4.27)--like tears or blood-implies physical or emotional stressor wounds. John Donne writes (Anatomy of th~ World [1611] vv. 430-31): "Mollifie it with thy teares, orsweat, or blood." Winston Churchill, although uncomfortable with the Classics, famously spoke of these threeon 13 May 1940, and earlier in his history of The Unknown War (1931): "Their [the Czar's armies'] sweat,their tears, their blood bedewed the endless plain."

32. From eaAAc..>; Lowenstam (1979) examines the I-E root *dhal- in Albanian, Armenian, and Greek.Homer's semantic field refers to that which springs freshly forth with, or from, moisture; Hamp (1984) 158brings in elements of blood spurting, seminal ejaculation, and youthful fertility. Giacomelli (1980) discusses~EVOS as fluid, energetic, sudden, and subject to only partial control. Tears, sweat, and semen evince this maleimpulse, a sign of anxiety (13, 15).

33. Cf. Monsacre (1984b) 64. Sleep, as a character, like dew, appears only in these two scenes of Here'sseduction of Zeus and Zeus' assumption of the dead son Sarpedon. Aiwv. like \fIVXT1 and ev~6s, refers tothe life force (Janko [1992] IV ad 16.450-55; cf. Od. 5.152-55 quoted below).

DONALD LATEINER 49

Glaukos' "real" blood also appears several times.27 The distinction between

unaging gods and miserable humans collapses in 16.459 to enhance Zeus'

intermittent "humanity."28 He sorrows like a human; the drops make him both

like men pouring libations to the gods and like men weeping over their afflic­

tions.29

Both males and females, gods and mortals, shed Homeric tears.30 Tears in

Homer express constructive forces or strong emotion more often than weak­

ness.31 They are 8aAepa (lusty, blooming, moist, and large),32 for example,

those of Andromakhe, Akhilleus, and the Trojans (6.496; 24.9, 794). They

are 8epIJa (warm or hot), for example, those of Trojans, Akhilleus, his

horses, and Antilokhos (7.426, 16.3, 17.438, 18.17). Blood, too, is thermon(11.266) and life-sustaining. Like Zeus' bright dew, human tears are a vital

fluid (cf. 11.53 above; or Zeus and Here's hieros gamos fertility ritual,

14.347-51; 23.598; Od.13.245).33 As tears drain from a man, so does his life

(Od.5.151-53):

TOV 0' ap' En' OKTiiS EVpE Ka6f]IJEVoV· oUOE nOT' OOOEoaKpv6<ptV TEpoovTo, KaTEi13ETO oe yAVKuS aiwvv60Tov 60vpoIJEv~.

[Kalypso] found him then at the point, and his eyes neverwere wiped dry of tears, as his sweet life flowed outof him, grieving for a trip home.

27. 16.486, 518, 529, 639, 667; see further in bloody Book 16: 159, 162, 333, 349, 796, 841.28. Another boundary collapse characterizes the usually phlegmatic Ares' agitated vows to avenge his son

Askalaphos' death (13.518-22). He, unlike any other god, slaps his thighs and risks "death" by Zeus' thunder­bolt, even in the blood and dust of [human] corpses: KElo8al 6~ou VEKUEOOl ~Ee' a'l~aTl Kal KOVlUOlV(15.118). The act of a god mixing with corpses violates a strict boundary-tabu, transgression of dividedrealms.

29. The "bloodlike" drops resemble the bloody meat and tears, ominous of imminent destruction for thepossessed Odyssean suitors (20.347-49). Homer flags plot crisis by pace-retarding, freakish blood-visions.

30. van Wees (1998) surveys the "history" of Hellenic tears; pp. 11-16 review Homer's weeping warriorsand wives. Gender ndes, outside of mourning rituals, have not yet made miserable.Homeric tears unmanly.Deathless gods have other human attributes: Here sweats; Aphrodite screams; she and Ares shed bodily fluids

.when stabbed (5.339-343, 855-62, 870); Ares collapses (391, 886); baby Dionysos trembles at a man (6.137);Artemis twists in pain and weeps (21.493: BaKpvoEooa); Ares despoils corpses (5.840). Gods appear so simi­lar to humans in size, shape, aura, and behavior that warriors fail to perceive whom they are attacking (5.183,etc.). Zeus wildly accuses Here of inclinations to eat raw human flesh, an insult of impossibility (cf.Combellack [1981]). Many of these nonverbal acts occur only once. Andersen (1981) 324 regards thesemoments as ad hoc enrichments of the plot, not relics of earlier theology (contra Levy [1979] 215, 217).

31. Compare Zeus' effusion with the agony (tv ayc..>vlc;d of Jesus (Luke 22:44). He pra"ys and sweatpours down him like clots of blood to the ground: tytVETO BE iBp~S aVTOV wod· epO~~Ol a'l~aTosKaTai3aivovol hTl TJ1V yiiv. Sweat (Here, 4.27)--like tears or blood-implies physical or emotional stressor wounds. John Donne writes (Anatomy of th~ World [1611] vv. 430-31): "Mollifie it with thy teares, orsweat, or blood." Winston Churchill, although uncomfortable with the Classics, famously spoke of these threeon 13 May 1940, and earlier in his history of The Unknown War (1931): "Their [the Czar's armies'] sweat,their tears, their blood bedewed the endless plain."

32. From eaAAc..>; Lowenstam (1979) examines the I-E root *dhal- in Albanian, Armenian, and Greek.Homer's semantic field refers to that which springs freshly forth with, or from, moisture; Hamp (1984) 158brings in elements of blood spurting, seminal ejaculation, and youthful fertility. Giacomelli (1980) discusses~EVOS as fluid, energetic, sudden, and subject to only partial control. Tears, sweat, and semen evince this maleimpulse, a sign of anxiety (13, 15).

33. Cf. Monsacre (1984b) 64. Sleep, as a character, like dew, appears only in these two scenes of Here'sseduction of Zeus and Zeus' assumption of the dead son Sarpedon. Aiwv. like \fIVXT1 and ev~6s, refers tothe life force (Janko [1992] IV ad 16.450-55; cf. Od. 5.152-55 quoted below).

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Zeus' "bloody drops" are hence vital in four ways: they associate epicwith blood and imminent death, weeping, long-term fertility, and the preser­vation of the dead (see below).34 Sarpedon's own mortal blood is prolepti­cally shed: Zeus pours out what his wounded son will lose and thus die forlack of (16.486, 639, 667). Zeus' poured drops represent his personal lossand all bloodshed, a synecdoche for war's wasted vitality. This image impliesboth tears and blood libations, as it elides the vast differences between them.The later, similar passage (pseudo-Hesiod, above) concludes a terrible com­bat between two other heroes, Herakles and Kyknos, respectively sons ofZeus and Ares. The presumably repeated formula again marks a violation ofnature-Zeus' bloody drops are poured only for filial, heroic carnage.35

3. Homeric parallels. Precedents and parallels for elements of Sarpedon'sdeath and Zeus' paternal mourning appear in Iliad 5, 12, 17, 22, and 24.Sarpedon, wounded earlier and sitting beneath "a lovely spreading oak ofZeus of the aegis" (5.693, another sign of the sky god's protection),beseeches Hektor not to leave him to be killed by the Akhaians. His appealinvokes the image of his own wife and son waiting for him at home (as areHektor's, 5.685-88):

... but protect me, since otherwise in your citymy life must come to an end, since I could return no longerback to my own house and the land of my fathers, bringingjoy to my own beloved wife and my son, still a baby.

Homer elects these pathetic arguments for the persuasion of Hektor, antici­pating the formula soon used for Hektor's family (6.366). Hektor silentlycomplies with Sarpedon's request.

Zeus honors Sarpedon's mortality-the fact that as a human beingSarpedon is subject to death. Here responds relevantly if elliptically to Zeus'heartfelt desire to spare Sarpedon's life: "If he is dear to you, and your heartmourns for him, then let him be" (16.450-51). Zeus must respect his heroicmortality by letting him die, and thus will honor Sarpedon's heroism: the willto fight, even anticipating death in battle. Sarpedon tells his henchmanGlaukos shortly before his death, and not by coincidence then (12.322-28):

34. The hero's burial requires a cleaned-up body with a mortician to close the wounds. Only after Zeus'henchmen properly process Sarpedon's messy corpse will he be ready for burial and implied propitiation andworship, as befalls Erekhtheus, nurtured by Athene in her temple (2.547-51). Hektor's corpse later lies simi­larly untended for a brief time (24.419-23, cf. 24.757; Hermes and Hekabe are the speakers): "fresh withdew/ ... nor is there any corruption ... / So the blessed immortals care ... / though he is just a corpse."

35. The line-end formula lTllTTOV Epa~E / XEUEV Epa~E occurs four other times (Janko [1992] ad loc.).Elsewhere humans are the agents and only ordinary earthly objects drop. Stones, chariot reins, weapons, andsheaves of wheat hit the ground.

12.156: Vl1WV T' WKulT6pwv' vl<pci5ES 5' WS lTilTTOV Epa~E.17.619: npllTE 5' E~ 6XEWV, KaTCI 5' nv{a XEUEV Epa~E.

17.633: n~iv 5' aVTws lTclmV ETwola lTllTTEl Epa~E.18.552: 5pciy~aTa 5' aAAa ~ET' oy~ov hTT1Tpl~a lTilTTOV Epa~E.

50 COLBY QUARTERLY

Zeus' "bloody drops" are hence vital in four ways: they associate epicwith blood and imminent death, weeping, long-term fertility, and the preser­vation of the dead (see below).34 Sarpedon's own mortal blood is prolepti­cally shed: Zeus pours out what his wounded son will lose and thus die forlack of (16.486, 639, 667). Zeus' poured drops represent his personal lossand all bloodshed, a synecdoche for war's wasted vitality. This image impliesboth tears and blood libations, as it elides the vast differences between them.The later, similar passage (pseudo-Hesiod, above) concludes a terrible com­bat between two other heroes, Herakles and Kyknos, respectively sons ofZeus and Ares. The presumably repeated formula again marks a violation ofnature-Zeus' bloody drops are poured only for filial, heroic carnage.35

3. Homeric parallels. Precedents and parallels for elements of Sarpedon'sdeath and Zeus' paternal mourning appear in Iliad 5, 12, 17, 22, and 24.Sarpedon, wounded earlier and sitting beneath "a lovely spreading oak ofZeus of the aegis" (5.693, another sign of the sky god's protection),beseeches Hektor not to leave him to be killed by the Akhaians. His appealinvokes the image of his own wife and son waiting for him at home (as areHektor's, 5.685-88):

... but protect me, since otherwise in your citymy life must come to an end, since I could return no longerback to my own house and the land of my fathers, bringingjoy to my own beloved wife and my son, still a baby.

Homer elects these pathetic arguments for the persuasion of Hektor, antici­pating the formula soon used for Hektor's family (6.366). Hektor silentlycomplies with Sarpedon's request.

Zeus honors Sarpedon's mortality-the fact that as a human beingSarpedon is subject to death. Here responds relevantly if elliptically to Zeus'heartfelt desire to spare Sarpedon's life: "If he is dear to you, and your heartmourns for him, then let him be" (16.450-51). Zeus must respect his heroicmortality by letting him die, and thus will honor Sarpedon's heroism: the willto fight, even anticipating death in battle. Sarpedon tells his henchmanGlaukos shortly before his death, and not by coincidence then (12.322-28):

34. The hero's burial requires a cleaned-up body with a mortician to close the wounds. Only after Zeus'henchmen properly process Sarpedon's messy corpse will he be ready for burial and implied propitiation andworship, as befalls Erekhtheus, nurtured by Athene in her temple (2.547-51). Hektor's corpse later lies simi­larly untended for a brief time (24.419-23, cf. 24.757; Hermes and Hekabe are the speakers): "fresh withdew/ ... nor is there any corruption ... / So the blessed immortals care ... / though he is just a corpse."

35. The line-end formula lTllTTOV Epa~E / XEUEV Epa~E occurs four other times (Janko [1992] ad loc.).Elsewhere humans are the agents and only ordinary earthly objects drop. Stones, chariot reins, weapons, andsheaves of wheat hit the ground.

12.156: Vl1WV T' WKulT6pwv' vl<pci5ES 5' WS lTilTTOV Epa~E.17.619: npllTE 5' E~ 6XEWV, KaTCI 5' nv{a XEUEV Epa~E.

17.633: n~iv 5' aVTws lTclmV ETwola lTllTTEl Epa~E.18.552: 5pciy~aTa 5' aAAa ~ET' oy~ov hTT1Tpl~a lTilTTOV Epa~E.

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Lateiner: Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus

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DONALD LATEINER

Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle,would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal,so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremostnor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory.But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about uslet us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.

51

Zeus, soon after Sarpedon's death, reacts to an unnatural event, the weep­ing of Achilleus' immortal horses for dead Patroklos, muttering to himself(17.442-47):

... Poor wretches,why then did we ever give you to the lord Peleus,a mortal man, and you yourselves are immortal and ageless?Only so that among unhappy men you also might be grieved?Since among all creatures that breathe on earth and crawl on itthere is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man is.

Zeus pities the immortal horses for losing a beloved mortal to death. Zeusand these other divine beings react "unnaturally" to death of a dear one.Humans are the most dismal of all earthly creatures, yet Zeus loves somemortals despite mortality.36 Zeus' grim observation oddly leads not to hiscontempt, but to human glory (17.448-54; Janko [1992] 2):

At least the son of Priam, Hektor, shall not mount behind youin the carefully wrought chariot. I will not let him. Is it notenough for him that he has the armour and glories in wearing it?But now I will put vigour into your knees and your spiritsso that you can bring back Automedon out of the fightingsafe to the hollow ships; since I shall still give the Trojansthe glory of killing, until they win to the strong-benched vessels.

Sarpedon himself chooses and desires to fight to the death, closely con­forming to traditional heroic expectation (Renehan [1987] 109). Zeus' bloodydrops37 acknowledge Sarpedon's mortality and honor his son's limited vitality.Since Zeus is responsible for the bloodshed (1.5,11.53,15.65-71,16.438), heappropriately causes bloody drops to fall in Books 11 and 16. As the humanbloodletter in warm-blooded sacrifice acknowledges responsibility for thedeath that he causes (Burkert [1985] 50-66), so, perhaps, Zeus expressesanticipatory solidarity with "his sacrificial victim." Having pitied his son(431), he honors and watches over him (460, 644-66). Sons of gods are few atTroy (Janko [1992] ad 16.444-49): seven Akhaians and two on the Trojanside, Aineias and Sarpedon.38

Priam and Akhilleus accept pain and tears as the human lot. Zeus, also,reveals a (sometimes) sympathetic, fatherly godhood. Homer's male tears are

36. See also 20.21 (with Edwards [1991] ad 20-30),22.168-69; 24.749; cf. Apollo: 21.463-66.37. Apparently the wet is invisible to, or unremarked by, the mortals present at Sarpedon's death.38. Tlepolemos, son of Zeus' son Herakles, in challenging Sarpedon to battle, ignorantly and ironically

denies Sarpedon's lineage from Zeus (5.633-37).

DONALD LATEINER

Man, supposing you and I, escaping this battle,would be able to live on forever, ageless, immortal,so neither would I myself go on fighting in the foremostnor would I urge you into the fighting where men win glory.But now, seeing that the spirits of death stand close about uslet us go on and win glory for ourselves, or yield it to others.

51

Zeus, soon after Sarpedon's death, reacts to an unnatural event, the weep­ing of Achilleus' immortal horses for dead Patroklos, muttering to himself(17.442-47):

... Poor wretches,why then did we ever give you to the lord Peleus,a mortal man, and you yourselves are immortal and ageless?Only so that among unhappy men you also might be grieved?Since among all creatures that breathe on earth and crawl on itthere is not anywhere a thing more dismal than man is.

Zeus pities the immortal horses for losing a beloved mortal to death. Zeusand these other divine beings react "unnaturally" to death of a dear one.Humans are the most dismal of all earthly creatures, yet Zeus loves somemortals despite mortality.36 Zeus' grim observation oddly leads not to hiscontempt, but to human glory (17.448-54; Janko [1992] 2):

At least the son of Priam, Hektor, shall not mount behind youin the carefully wrought chariot. I will not let him. Is it notenough for him that he has the armour and glories in wearing it?But now I will put vigour into your knees and your spiritsso that you can bring back Automedon out of the fightingsafe to the hollow ships; since I shall still give the Trojansthe glory of killing, until they win to the strong-benched vessels.

Sarpedon himself chooses and desires to fight to the death, closely con­forming to traditional heroic expectation (Renehan [1987] 109). Zeus' bloodydrops37 acknowledge Sarpedon's mortality and honor his son's limited vitality.Since Zeus is responsible for the bloodshed (1.5,11.53,15.65-71,16.438), heappropriately causes bloody drops to fall in Books 11 and 16. As the humanbloodletter in warm-blooded sacrifice acknowledges responsibility for thedeath that he causes (Burkert [1985] 50-66), so, perhaps, Zeus expressesanticipatory solidarity with "his sacrificial victim." Having pitied his son(431), he honors and watches over him (460, 644-66). Sons of gods are few atTroy (Janko [1992] ad 16.444-49): seven Akhaians and two on the Trojanside, Aineias and Sarpedon.38

Priam and Akhilleus accept pain and tears as the human lot. Zeus, also,reveals a (sometimes) sympathetic, fatherly godhood. Homer's male tears are

36. See also 20.21 (with Edwards [1991] ad 20-30),22.168-69; 24.749; cf. Apollo: 21.463-66.37. Apparently the wet is invisible to, or unremarked by, the mortals present at Sarpedon's death.38. Tlepolemos, son of Zeus' son Herakles, in challenging Sarpedon to battle, ignorantly and ironically

denies Sarpedon's lineage from Zeus (5.633-37).

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active and public signs; female weeping generally occurs in more privatespace. Tears display male vulnerability, repeatedly contrasted with aggressivemartial ability, or with taunting, or athletic ability, or sheer courage. For Zeus,Priam, and Akhilleus, as for other divinities and mortals (24.714), sheddingtears, losing blood, or pouring libations express loss and pain,39 enlargingHomer's portrait of physical, psychological, and social experience.4O

Zeus does not hit his thighs in exasperation, an epic gesture that intimatesand anticipates the death of a loved one. Nor does he veil himself, roll in thedust, smear himself with dung, or tear out or cut his hair, as do mortalAgamemnon, Akhilleus, and Priam.41 Sympathetic or humanlike though hemay be before impending disaster, Zeus' sempiternal dignity prevents suchnonverbal affect-displays. The only other "god who mourns as a mortalmourns is Thetis," a bereft and inconsolable goddess who is married to amortal.42 She resembles helpless, sorrowing mortal mothers (24.104-5; cf.22.405-7,24.747-60) more than awesome and potent divinities.43

The depth of Zeus' sorrow resembles and anticipates Akhilleus', but hisexpression of it transcends mortal, even heroic resources. When Sarpedondies, Zeus experiences a determined and pitiless desire for further bloodshed,a sequence that Akhilleus' own urge for blood echoes, when his closest,nearly son-like, friend Patroklos dies.44 But the slaughter of others neverrestores lost life (cf. 9.406-9). Zeus, and later Akhilleus, can only kill andensure that beloved corpses receive proper obsequies.

Akhilleus' intense misery at Patroklos' loss requires and expresses itselfin "a funeral of a special kind." He cuts off a reserved lock of his hair,arranges sheep-fat, honey, oil, horses, dogs, and (spectacularly) twelveTrojan boys on the great pyre (23.141-42, 164-75). Similarly, Zeus' intensegrief (16.450) requires unparalleled expression and commemoration. Hisanguish draws from his sky repertory: bizarre precipitation, honors for deadmortals, and implied further honors for posthumous heroes, here chthoniccult (Burkert [1985] 205). It differs from other instances of divine grief butanticipates the communal and culminating funerals that the undivinePatroklos and Hektor receive.

39. Priam: 22.429, 24.510; 24.791; Akhilleus: 19.5,23.34,220.40. Monsacre (1984b) 58-59, 65, 68; with lists of epic weepers; cf. Lateiner (1995) 44-45.41. 24.161-65; tear out hair: 10.15, 18.27, 22.77-78, 24.710-11; cut hair: 23.146, 151-52. Lowenstam

(1981) 31-67 examines Homeric thigh-slapping. No god but Ares slaps his thighs in Archaic epic (15.113;p. 43). Lateiner (1995) 34, 34n.9, 44, 48n.38, 169, surveys mortal and immortal "social hair," the meanings ofhair length, quantity, and style.

42.18.51-96,24.83-102; Griffin (1980) 190; Slatkin (1991) 7,17-20,82-84, discusses Thetis' roles asnurturing and grief-stricken mother and (failing) protector. Slatkin emphasizes Thetis' powers that Homerignores or suppresses. Ares' (15.113-19) and Zeus' parental grief are closest to hers.

43. Cf. her grief at 1.396-400; athetized by Zenodotos and unparalleled elsewhere in the epic. The singu­larity of the monumental poet's verses or scenes can never disprove authenticity.

44. On this dependent relationship, resembling blood-kin, see 18.80-'82,23.94-96 & 136-37, but esp. 16.6­11 (mother-daughter), 19.321-27 (father or son), and 23.84, 222-25, 24.46-49; cf. Halperin (1990) 84-85.Homer seems concerned to define it, although it puzzles ancient and modem audiences.

52 COLBY QUARTERLY

active and public signs; female weeping generally occurs in more privatespace. Tears display male vulnerability, repeatedly contrasted with aggressivemartial ability, or with taunting, or athletic ability, or sheer courage. For Zeus,Priam, and Akhilleus, as for other divinities and mortals (24.714), sheddingtears, losing blood, or pouring libations express loss and pain,39 enlargingHomer's portrait of physical, psychological, and social experience.4O

Zeus does not hit his thighs in exasperation, an epic gesture that intimatesand anticipates the death of a loved one. Nor does he veil himself, roll in thedust, smear himself with dung, or tear out or cut his hair, as do mortalAgamemnon, Akhilleus, and Priam.41 Sympathetic or humanlike though hemay be before impending disaster, Zeus' sempiternal dignity prevents suchnonverbal affect-displays. The only other "god who mourns as a mortalmourns is Thetis," a bereft and inconsolable goddess who is married to amortal.42 She resembles helpless, sorrowing mortal mothers (24.104-5; cf.22.405-7,24.747-60) more than awesome and potent divinities.43

The depth of Zeus' sorrow resembles and anticipates Akhilleus', but hisexpression of it transcends mortal, even heroic resources. When Sarpedondies, Zeus experiences a determined and pitiless desire for further bloodshed,a sequence that Akhilleus' own urge for blood echoes, when his closest,nearly son-like, friend Patroklos dies.44 But the slaughter of others neverrestores lost life (cf. 9.406-9). Zeus, and later Akhilleus, can only kill andensure that beloved corpses receive proper obsequies.

Akhilleus' intense misery at Patroklos' loss requires and expresses itselfin "a funeral of a special kind." He cuts off a reserved lock of his hair,arranges sheep-fat, honey, oil, horses, dogs, and (spectacularly) twelveTrojan boys on the great pyre (23.141-42, 164-75). Similarly, Zeus' intensegrief (16.450) requires unparalleled expression and commemoration. Hisanguish draws from his sky repertory: bizarre precipitation, honors for deadmortals, and implied further honors for posthumous heroes, here chthoniccult (Burkert [1985] 205). It differs from other instances of divine grief butanticipates the communal and culminating funerals that the undivinePatroklos and Hektor receive.

39. Priam: 22.429, 24.510; 24.791; Akhilleus: 19.5,23.34,220.40. Monsacre (1984b) 58-59, 65, 68; with lists of epic weepers; cf. Lateiner (1995) 44-45.41. 24.161-65; tear out hair: 10.15, 18.27, 22.77-78, 24.710-11; cut hair: 23.146, 151-52. Lowenstam

(1981) 31-67 examines Homeric thigh-slapping. No god but Ares slaps his thighs in Archaic epic (15.113;p. 43). Lateiner (1995) 34, 34n.9, 44, 48n.38, 169, surveys mortal and immortal "social hair," the meanings ofhair length, quantity, and style.

42.18.51-96,24.83-102; Griffin (1980) 190; Slatkin (1991) 7,17-20,82-84, discusses Thetis' roles asnurturing and grief-stricken mother and (failing) protector. Slatkin emphasizes Thetis' powers that Homerignores or suppresses. Ares' (15.113-19) and Zeus' parental grief are closest to hers.

43. Cf. her grief at 1.396-400; athetized by Zenodotos and unparalleled elsewhere in the epic. The singu­larity of the monumental poet's verses or scenes can never disprove authenticity.

44. On this dependent relationship, resembling blood-kin, see 18.80-'82,23.94-96 & 136-37, but esp. 16.6­11 (mother-daughter), 19.321-27 (father or son), and 23.84, 222-25, 24.46-49; cf. Halperin (1990) 84-85.Homer seems concerned to define it, although it puzzles ancient and modem audiences.

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Zeus honors Sarpedon with bloody drops that go unnoticed, but his per­ceived response is to intensify the violence and fatality of the fight overSarpedon's corpse (16.564-68):

Trojans and Lykians, and Myrmidons and Akhaians,they clashed together in battle over the perished bodyhowling terribly, with a high crash of the men in their armour,while Zeus swept ghastly night far over the strong encounterthat over his dear son might be deadly work in the fighting.

The Homeric dead lay various claims on their survivors. Obligationsinclude protection from the enemy's stripping the corpse (Sarpedon, 16.498)and burial rites, in particular cremation (never inhumation, Garland [1982]73). The gods may reproach surviving slackers (22.346ff., Ode 11.73).Tendance of the dead hero includes burial mound and marker (16.456, 675;Garland [1982] 69, 73). The funerals of Sarpedon, Patroklos, Hektor, andAkhilleus are the most fully reported and anticipated.45

4. Reflections of hero cult. Archaeological traces of hero cult aredetectable in the ground before the diffusion of Homeric epic but developedalongside the monumentalization of the Homeric epics. Material remainsshow that "superhuman" men received heroic "burial" honors and cult atMykenaian sites in old Greece and Ionia by 725 Be and occasionally longbefore (e.g., at Lefkandi). Material cult and verbal celebration in epic bothtook shape as the Bronze Age yielded to the Iron. The epics and the materialevidence of hero cult are equally aged and ubiquitous. Dark Age archaeologydelivers daily surprises; no segment of the Homeric epics can be dated ordeclared uncontaminated by additions. Myth arose from bones (Vermeule[1979] 206-7) and bones accounted for myths, so it would be circular to datepassages which imply hero cult from excavations or vice versa.46

Lykian Sarpedon appears in fact to have been a non-Greek superhumanbefore receiving in historical times a local tomb cult and becoming aneponym for various demes, hills, islands, and an oracle (Immisch [1915] 408­10, Janko [1992] 372-73 ad 16.419-683). Though on the periphery of theHellenic world, Lykia plays an important role in the development of thegrand-scale Greek monuments to demigods (Burkert [1985] 203). Homernever confirms (anachronistically) the subsequent construction of Sarpedon's

45. Garland (1982) 74 argues against tomb cult and cult of the dead and for the tomb as focus for gather­ings to stimulate remembrance of the departed (cf. Od. 4.584' 'iv' aO~EoToV KAEO~ elT).

46. Cf. inter alios Hack (1929) 73-74; Coldstream (1976) 8-9; Popham et aI. (1982); Morris (1986); andAntonaccio (1995) 243. Price (1973) and Seaford (1994) discuss hero cult and Homer. The important burial atLefkandi already challenged confident assertions; see e.g., Popham et aI. (1982) 171; idem, (1987) 13; idem,(1989) 117-29. Coldstream (1976) 8-17 stated the now crumbling communis opinio, namely that Greek herocults arose from the popular epic and show no continuity with Mykenaian religion. J. Whitley (1988) 173-82,at 178, 181 (followed by Seaford [1994] 109-14), argues rather for a political explanation of the rise of herocult: to impede (Attic) and to promote (Argolid) polis-formation. Antonaccio (1995), examining issues raisedby Morris and Whitley concerning the veneration of ancestors, assembles evidence only from mainlandGreece. Lykian Sarpedon unfortunately falls beyond her geographical boundaries in the chapter (145-97) sur­veying "Cults of epic and mythical heroes." Ad hoc construction in the epics, including matters of myth andcult, disables archaeology from decisively disproving any cult practice that Homer implies. Do not look for athin stratum of blood-colored dust in Troy VIII or VIlA!

DONALD LATEINER 53

Zeus honors Sarpedon with bloody drops that go unnoticed, but his per­ceived response is to intensify the violence and fatality of the fight overSarpedon's corpse (16.564-68):

Trojans and Lykians, and Myrmidons and Akhaians,they clashed together in battle over the perished bodyhowling terribly, with a high crash of the men in their armour,while Zeus swept ghastly night far over the strong encounterthat over his dear son might be deadly work in the fighting.

The Homeric dead lay various claims on their survivors. Obligationsinclude protection from the enemy's stripping the corpse (Sarpedon, 16.498)and burial rites, in particular cremation (never inhumation, Garland [1982]73). The gods may reproach surviving slackers (22.346ff., Ode 11.73).Tendance of the dead hero includes burial mound and marker (16.456, 675;Garland [1982] 69, 73). The funerals of Sarpedon, Patroklos, Hektor, andAkhilleus are the most fully reported and anticipated.45

4. Reflections of hero cult. Archaeological traces of hero cult aredetectable in the ground before the diffusion of Homeric epic but developedalongside the monumentalization of the Homeric epics. Material remainsshow that "superhuman" men received heroic "burial" honors and cult atMykenaian sites in old Greece and Ionia by 725 Be and occasionally longbefore (e.g., at Lefkandi). Material cult and verbal celebration in epic bothtook shape as the Bronze Age yielded to the Iron. The epics and the materialevidence of hero cult are equally aged and ubiquitous. Dark Age archaeologydelivers daily surprises; no segment of the Homeric epics can be dated ordeclared uncontaminated by additions. Myth arose from bones (Vermeule[1979] 206-7) and bones accounted for myths, so it would be circular to datepassages which imply hero cult from excavations or vice versa.46

Lykian Sarpedon appears in fact to have been a non-Greek superhumanbefore receiving in historical times a local tomb cult and becoming aneponym for various demes, hills, islands, and an oracle (Immisch [1915] 408­10, Janko [1992] 372-73 ad 16.419-683). Though on the periphery of theHellenic world, Lykia plays an important role in the development of thegrand-scale Greek monuments to demigods (Burkert [1985] 203). Homernever confirms (anachronistically) the subsequent construction of Sarpedon's

45. Garland (1982) 74 argues against tomb cult and cult of the dead and for the tomb as focus for gather­ings to stimulate remembrance of the departed (cf. Od. 4.584' 'iv' aO~EoToV KAEO~ elT).

46. Cf. inter alios Hack (1929) 73-74; Coldstream (1976) 8-9; Popham et aI. (1982); Morris (1986); andAntonaccio (1995) 243. Price (1973) and Seaford (1994) discuss hero cult and Homer. The important burial atLefkandi already challenged confident assertions; see e.g., Popham et aI. (1982) 171; idem, (1987) 13; idem,(1989) 117-29. Coldstream (1976) 8-17 stated the now crumbling communis opinio, namely that Greek herocults arose from the popular epic and show no continuity with Mykenaian religion. J. Whitley (1988) 173-82,at 178, 181 (followed by Seaford [1994] 109-14), argues rather for a political explanation of the rise of herocult: to impede (Attic) and to promote (Argolid) polis-formation. Antonaccio (1995), examining issues raisedby Morris and Whitley concerning the veneration of ancestors, assembles evidence only from mainlandGreece. Lykian Sarpedon unfortunately falls beyond her geographical boundaries in the chapter (145-97) sur­veying "Cults of epic and mythical heroes." Ad hoc construction in the epics, including matters of myth andcult, disables archaeology from decisively disproving any cult practice that Homer implies. Do not look for athin stratum of blood-colored dust in Troy VIII or VIlA!

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predicted tumulus and special grave monument in a precinct, but the Ionicaudience(s) would recognize contemporary honors. Beings apart from mor­tals and immortals, the hovering heroes remain near men, in their happinessand need. Their grave-empowered presences, e.g., Laomedon and Theseus,supernaturally protect worshippers.47

Hellenic oral epic, as a public and travelling panhellenic art, was necessar­ily cognizant of the Ionic/Anatolian cults of the dead and cults of heroes.Nagy strongly asserts that Homeric poetry is "permeated with referencesto ... heroes in their religious dimension as figures of cult."48 Gods receivetime from heroic warriors and from the demos. This is the Homeric cult ofthe gods, the lesser (both hoi polloi and heroic mortals) worshipping thegreater (Olympians and/or Chthonians). No Homeric god worships anothergod as Homer's heroes assuredly do worship the immortals, but "no one[exists] to do the worshipping" of heroes, in Homer's poems. Because his"dramatic date" for the Trojan war is the heroes' own ancient age, antedatingby definition "Homer's" and the Homerids' subsequent eras and the herocults of these warriors, his mortals do not openly reverence great men ofyore. The epic word and phrase "such as men now are," 0101 vOv f3POTOlEiol, sets the boundary, a "formula of inferiority" (e.g., 12.283,449 =5.304 =20.287; cf. 1.272; Hack [1929] 72; Chantraine [1999] 198).

Lacking suitable worshippers in the poems, Homeric epic usually sup­presses contemporary heroic cult practices, but oblique intimations surface atleast for Herakles, Menelaos, and Sarpedon, also Helen, Erekhtheus, andIno.49 Patroklos' funeral and athla, the honors given to Akhilleus' therapon,may also reflect heroic cult. Time, Homeric due honor and esteem (TII·.l11),both secular and sacred, occurs in contexts where mortals honor someone likea god, or treat someone like a god, as with a sollemnly splendid TapxvElvburia1.5o Homer variously implies hero rituals, cultic figures, and cultic hon­ors (Nagy [1990] 131-35). Time like that given to a god (SEas 0' wS TlETOBrUle+» means the hero "is thereby being treated as a cult figure" (againNagy [1990] 135, his italics).

The large tumuli of Asia Minor were regarded in the early Iron Age ashero burials (cf. Paus. 5.13.7). These still prominent mounds stimulated mak­ers of legend and epic to "remember" the heroes and celebrate them throughstory, sacrifice and libation, and tomb-display. Hero cult51 may have

47. Servius ad Verg. Aen. 2.13, 241, noted by Robertson (1970) 23-26; Hdt. 1.67-68, 6.69; Soph. OC1522-23; Plut. Kim. 8; Paus. 10.4.7. Heroes can be hostile also (Hipp. morb. sacr. 4.38).

48. Hack (1929) 57-65 examines and rejects the Wilamowitz-Rohde consensus holding that Homer choseto ignore hero cult (e.g., Rohde [1925] 116, 119). Price (1973) and Nagy (1990) 128 follow Hack's lead.

49. See Lyons (1997) for three heroines in later cult.50. This manner of solemn burial is granted only to Sarpedon, 16.456-57 = 674-75, but see the wording of

7.85-86 (Hektor's expected Akhaian victim in the proposed duel; also Chantraine [1999] 1095). Hektor'spromise to commemorate an Akhaian champion usefully suggests extraordinary-heroizing-treatment.

51. Among the vast bibliography, Wilamowitz (1920) 136 notably believed the holy monument in Lykiaand local spirit led to Sarpedon's inclusion in the originally quite separate Trojan epic: die Horer ihre Heidenin diesem Kreise anzutreffen wunschten. See also Rohde (1925), esp. 115-55;. Nock (1944) 141-74 (= [1972]575-602); and Burkert (1985) 429ff., esp. n.l.

54 COLBY QUARTERLY

predicted tumulus and special grave monument in a precinct, but the Ionicaudience(s) would recognize contemporary honors. Beings apart from mor­tals and immortals, the hovering heroes remain near men, in their happinessand need. Their grave-empowered presences, e.g., Laomedon and Theseus,supernaturally protect worshippers.47

Hellenic oral epic, as a public and travelling panhellenic art, was necessar­ily cognizant of the Ionic/Anatolian cults of the dead and cults of heroes.Nagy strongly asserts that Homeric poetry is "permeated with referencesto ... heroes in their religious dimension as figures of cult."48 Gods receivetime from heroic warriors and from the demos. This is the Homeric cult ofthe gods, the lesser (both hoi polloi and heroic mortals) worshipping thegreater (Olympians and/or Chthonians). No Homeric god worships anothergod as Homer's heroes assuredly do worship the immortals, but "no one[exists] to do the worshipping" of heroes, in Homer's poems. Because his"dramatic date" for the Trojan war is the heroes' own ancient age, antedatingby definition "Homer's" and the Homerids' subsequent eras and the herocults of these warriors, his mortals do not openly reverence great men ofyore. The epic word and phrase "such as men now are," 0101 vOv f3POTOlEiol, sets the boundary, a "formula of inferiority" (e.g., 12.283,449 =5.304 =20.287; cf. 1.272; Hack [1929] 72; Chantraine [1999] 198).

Lacking suitable worshippers in the poems, Homeric epic usually sup­presses contemporary heroic cult practices, but oblique intimations surface atleast for Herakles, Menelaos, and Sarpedon, also Helen, Erekhtheus, andIno.49 Patroklos' funeral and athla, the honors given to Akhilleus' therapon,may also reflect heroic cult. Time, Homeric due honor and esteem (TII·.l11),both secular and sacred, occurs in contexts where mortals honor someone likea god, or treat someone like a god, as with a sollemnly splendid TapxvElvburia1.5o Homer variously implies hero rituals, cultic figures, and cultic hon­ors (Nagy [1990] 131-35). Time like that given to a god (SEas 0' wS TlETOBrUle+» means the hero "is thereby being treated as a cult figure" (againNagy [1990] 135, his italics).

The large tumuli of Asia Minor were regarded in the early Iron Age ashero burials (cf. Paus. 5.13.7). These still prominent mounds stimulated mak­ers of legend and epic to "remember" the heroes and celebrate them throughstory, sacrifice and libation, and tomb-display. Hero cult51 may have

47. Servius ad Verg. Aen. 2.13, 241, noted by Robertson (1970) 23-26; Hdt. 1.67-68, 6.69; Soph. OC1522-23; Plut. Kim. 8; Paus. 10.4.7. Heroes can be hostile also (Hipp. morb. sacr. 4.38).

48. Hack (1929) 57-65 examines and rejects the Wilamowitz-Rohde consensus holding that Homer choseto ignore hero cult (e.g., Rohde [1925] 116, 119). Price (1973) and Nagy (1990) 128 follow Hack's lead.

49. See Lyons (1997) for three heroines in later cult.50. This manner of solemn burial is granted only to Sarpedon, 16.456-57 = 674-75, but see the wording of

7.85-86 (Hektor's expected Akhaian victim in the proposed duel; also Chantraine [1999] 1095). Hektor'spromise to commemorate an Akhaian champion usefully suggests extraordinary-heroizing-treatment.

51. Among the vast bibliography, Wilamowitz (1920) 136 notably believed the holy monument in Lykiaand local spirit led to Sarpedon's inclusion in the originally quite separate Trojan epic: die Horer ihre Heidenin diesem Kreise anzutreffen wunschten. See also Rohde (1925), esp. 115-55;. Nock (1944) 141-74 (= [1972]575-602); and Burkert (1985) 429ff., esp. n.l.

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migrated from Asia Minor to mainland Greece where the practices developedin honor and explanation of their own Mykenaian tombs.52 "Heroic" struc­tures were everywhere, even though local heroes were a "motley crew"(Rohde [1925] 126).

Here's suggestions for consolation (16.451-57) and Zeus' consequentactions after Sarpedon' s death suggest more than disposal of the bloodieddead. Zeus instructs another son, the fully di vine Apollo, to rescueSarpedon's mangled body, clean off the blood in running water, and anointhim with another unusual liquid, ambrosia.53 Then he should transport thebody, properly prepared for burial, to Lykia for funeral rites, a mighty tomb,and an honorific stone marker (16.666-75; cf. Here's identical words, 6.450­57; Garland [1982] passim):

ev8a ETOPXVOOVOl KoolYVTlTol TE ETOl TETV~~~ TE OTf)AD TE' TO yap yepos eOTl 80VOVTWV.

There his brothers and countrymen will sollemnly bury himwith a tomb and a marker-for this is the reward that dead humans get.

Other Homeric passages also show a god exalting (TlIlCJV) a mortal.Laogonos-whose father Onetor, priest of Zeus from Ida, is honored like agod-fights for dead Sarpedon.54 Erekhtheus (2.547-51; Rohde [1925] 98),the Athenian heroized king, receives propitiation in Athene's temple. TheDioskouroi, sons of Zeus (Od. 11.300-4), are alive and dead in turnaboutfashion on alternating days, but even on the "dead" ones, they obtain honor(time) from Zeus equal to the gods'. Hero cult for Teiresias, a mortal of awe­some power now below the earth, requires blood sacrifice (Price [1973] 134­35).The practices (including a promised sacrifice of a black sheep; Ode 11.32,cf. Eur. Elek. 516) in the Nekyomanteia hint at such. Godlike 110s (aEtOS"IAoS, 10.415), eponym of Ilion, has his earthly monument. This serna isprobably his grand Sarpedon-like gravemarker and manmade tomb (11.371­72, 24.349). The unparalleled honor in Sarpedon's case is the anticipatorymiracle, resembling a blood offering before the death of the uniquely Zeus­born hero.55

52. Price (1973) 143-44 discusses these issues and whether Homeric epic produced actual rituals or ritualproduced events of epic; whether luxurious burial practices led to hero cults or vice versa; and priority forfuneral games, or athla.

53. Kirk (1990) 10-13 remarks that the adjective "ambrosial" can describe anything immortal, as etymol­ogy suggests. The word usually denotes food, ten times in the two epics, for divine horses in the Iliad (5.777),and at Kalypso's cave in the Odyssey. That is, ambrosia as nutriment or ointment (19.347, 353) is nearlyalways consumed by immortals but only on earth (16.670, 680; 19.38). The comestible is never consumed onOlympos. Here's use at 14.170-72, as detergent and perfume, proves the rule.

54. 16.604-5, attributed in the context of Sarpedon's killing and heavenly assumption. So also otherpriests and kings: Dolopion, Agamemnon, Aineias, Thoas (5.77-78, 10.32-33, 11.58-60, 13.216-18); Nagy(1990) 133 thinks both categories of men benefit from ideas of sacrality with hints of hero cult.

55. Hesiod differently suggests human uncertainty about the fate of heroes at Erga 156-73. Pindar fr.143[Snell-Maehler] =fr.131 [Bowra] calls some of them ci¥Tipaol, those who died at Troy or dwell in snowlessElysion or the Blessed Isles, heroes and half-gods who make the fields flourish. Price (1973) and Seaford(1994) address the chronology of Mykenaian practice, Dark Age interruptions, the beliefs and practices of theHomeric age, and Homer's hero cults. Andersen (1981) disputes that the text of Homer can help recover"relics" of pre-Homeric religion.

DONALD LATEINER 55

migrated from Asia Minor to mainland Greece where the practices developedin honor and explanation of their own Mykenaian tombs.52 "Heroic" struc­tures were everywhere, even though local heroes were a "motley crew"(Rohde [1925] 126).

Here's suggestions for consolation (16.451-57) and Zeus' consequentactions after Sarpedon' s death suggest more than disposal of the bloodieddead. Zeus instructs another son, the fully di vine Apollo, to rescueSarpedon's mangled body, clean off the blood in running water, and anointhim with another unusual liquid, ambrosia.53 Then he should transport thebody, properly prepared for burial, to Lykia for funeral rites, a mighty tomb,and an honorific stone marker (16.666-75; cf. Here's identical words, 6.450­57; Garland [1982] passim):

ev8a ETOPXVOOVOl KoolYVTlTol TE ETOl TETV~~~ TE OTf)AD TE' TO yap yepos eOTl 80VOVTWV.

There his brothers and countrymen will sollemnly bury himwith a tomb and a marker-for this is the reward that dead humans get.

Other Homeric passages also show a god exalting (TlIlCJV) a mortal.Laogonos-whose father Onetor, priest of Zeus from Ida, is honored like agod-fights for dead Sarpedon.54 Erekhtheus (2.547-51; Rohde [1925] 98),the Athenian heroized king, receives propitiation in Athene's temple. TheDioskouroi, sons of Zeus (Od. 11.300-4), are alive and dead in turnaboutfashion on alternating days, but even on the "dead" ones, they obtain honor(time) from Zeus equal to the gods'. Hero cult for Teiresias, a mortal of awe­some power now below the earth, requires blood sacrifice (Price [1973] 134­35).The practices (including a promised sacrifice of a black sheep; Ode 11.32,cf. Eur. Elek. 516) in the Nekyomanteia hint at such. Godlike 110s (aEtOS"IAoS, 10.415), eponym of Ilion, has his earthly monument. This serna isprobably his grand Sarpedon-like gravemarker and manmade tomb (11.371­72, 24.349). The unparalleled honor in Sarpedon's case is the anticipatorymiracle, resembling a blood offering before the death of the uniquely Zeus­born hero.55

52. Price (1973) 143-44 discusses these issues and whether Homeric epic produced actual rituals or ritualproduced events of epic; whether luxurious burial practices led to hero cults or vice versa; and priority forfuneral games, or athla.

53. Kirk (1990) 10-13 remarks that the adjective "ambrosial" can describe anything immortal, as etymol­ogy suggests. The word usually denotes food, ten times in the two epics, for divine horses in the Iliad (5.777),and at Kalypso's cave in the Odyssey. That is, ambrosia as nutriment or ointment (19.347, 353) is nearlyalways consumed by immortals but only on earth (16.670, 680; 19.38). The comestible is never consumed onOlympos. Here's use at 14.170-72, as detergent and perfume, proves the rule.

54. 16.604-5, attributed in the context of Sarpedon's killing and heavenly assumption. So also otherpriests and kings: Dolopion, Agamemnon, Aineias, Thoas (5.77-78, 10.32-33, 11.58-60, 13.216-18); Nagy(1990) 133 thinks both categories of men benefit from ideas of sacrality with hints of hero cult.

55. Hesiod differently suggests human uncertainty about the fate of heroes at Erga 156-73. Pindar fr.143[Snell-Maehler] =fr.131 [Bowra] calls some of them ci¥Tipaol, those who died at Troy or dwell in snowlessElysion or the Blessed Isles, heroes and half-gods who make the fields flourish. Price (1973) and Seaford(1994) address the chronology of Mykenaian practice, Dark Age interruptions, the beliefs and practices of theHomeric age, and Homer's hero cults. Andersen (1981) disputes that the text of Homer can help recover"relics" of pre-Homeric religion.

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Homer explains favored status on earth and in heaven most fully forSarpedon. Sarpedon and Glaukos hold the far end of the Trojan battle lineand the Trojan catalogue of allies (2.876-77 in 2.815-77). No other Trojanallies are so frequently mentioned or achieve so much (e.g., 16.521, 551).Sarpedon's duel with the berserker Tlepolemos, a Heraklid (therefore, him­self Zeus' grandson, 5.631), intimates his "implicit and impending immortal­ization" (Nagy [1990] 140). Sarpedon kills the Akhaian ally in heroiccombat, while Zeus (through intermediaries, as always) cares for Sarpedon.He has already been grievously wounded in this battle (an "anticipatory dou­blet"-Fenik's [1968] 213-16 useful term). Tlepolemos' almost lethal furyand spear has damaged Sarpedon' s left thigh so seriously as to fell him.56Pelagon's painful surgery, removing the long spear shaft by pushing itthrough the thigh, nearly kills "god-equal" Sarpedon.

Early death partly explains Sarpedon's unique double resurrection. FatherZeus earlier was still (anticipating our passage) protecting him againstdecomposition, loigon (5.603, 662). Companions, god-like (dioi: 5.662-64,only here so described), carry "god-equal"57 Sarpedon from the field:

60TE'P eyxplIJ<p6ElOO, lTOTr,p 0' ETl AOly6v aIJVVEV.dl IJEV ap' aVT16Eov LoplTll06vo OlOl ETOlPOle~E<pEpoV lTOAEIJOlO·

[The spear] skimmed Sarpedon's bone, but his father still kept off destruction.Then his god-like comrades carried god-equal Sarpedonfrom battle.

Hetairoi constitute a band of military comrades but the word also signifieschief attendants and even human followers of a divinity in disguise (Od.24.517, cf. 503). Further, Sarpedon is repeatedly identified as Zeus' son byboth characters and the omniscient narrator (5.631,635,662,672,675,682;eleven times; cf. Dee [2001] 392). The hero is laid down by his companionsto recover under the "extraordinarily beautiful oak of Aegis-holding Zeus"(5.693). Zeus' sacred, oracular tree58 is an Iliadic landmark, an immovableobject sacred to Zeus, signifying longevity, stability, and protection. Thecluster of epithets marks the unique hero (Kirk [1990] ad loc.). The shelteringtree further "Zeusifies" the son of Zeus.

In standard fashion for heroic battle-fodder, his psykhe, or life-breath,departs (AhIe 'VUxn; cf. 16.453), and the mist of death, ciXAVS, envelops him

56. The word "still" (ETl, 5.660-62), in "But still his father kept off evil death," hints at Sarpedon's immi­nent final difficulties.

57. Antitheos (662-64) is Sarpedon's commonest epithet (6x) but rarely attaches to any others in the Iliad.See Dee EHH (2000) #602, also Index, p. 497.

58. Cf. 7.60, Hdt. 2.55 with Lloyd's (1976) Book II commentary on this Herodotean passage.

56 COLBY QUARTERLY

Homer explains favored status on earth and in heaven most fully forSarpedon. Sarpedon and Glaukos hold the far end of the Trojan battle lineand the Trojan catalogue of allies (2.876-77 in 2.815-77). No other Trojanallies are so frequently mentioned or achieve so much (e.g., 16.521, 551).Sarpedon's duel with the berserker Tlepolemos, a Heraklid (therefore, him­self Zeus' grandson, 5.631), intimates his "implicit and impending immortal­ization" (Nagy [1990] 140). Sarpedon kills the Akhaian ally in heroiccombat, while Zeus (through intermediaries, as always) cares for Sarpedon.He has already been grievously wounded in this battle (an "anticipatory dou­blet"-Fenik's [1968] 213-16 useful term). Tlepolemos' almost lethal furyand spear has damaged Sarpedon' s left thigh so seriously as to fell him.56Pelagon's painful surgery, removing the long spear shaft by pushing itthrough the thigh, nearly kills "god-equal" Sarpedon.

Early death partly explains Sarpedon's unique double resurrection. FatherZeus earlier was still (anticipating our passage) protecting him againstdecomposition, loigon (5.603, 662). Companions, god-like (dioi: 5.662-64,only here so described), carry "god-equal"57 Sarpedon from the field:

60TE'P eyxplIJ<p6ElOO, lTOTr,p 0' ETl AOly6v aIJVVEV.dl IJEV ap' aVT16Eov LoplTll06vo OlOl ETOlPOle~E<pEpoV lTOAEIJOlO·

[The spear] skimmed Sarpedon's bone, but his father still kept off destruction.Then his god-like comrades carried god-equal Sarpedonfrom battle.

Hetairoi constitute a band of military comrades but the word also signifieschief attendants and even human followers of a divinity in disguise (Od.24.517, cf. 503). Further, Sarpedon is repeatedly identified as Zeus' son byboth characters and the omniscient narrator (5.631,635,662,672,675,682;eleven times; cf. Dee [2001] 392). The hero is laid down by his companionsto recover under the "extraordinarily beautiful oak of Aegis-holding Zeus"(5.693). Zeus' sacred, oracular tree58 is an Iliadic landmark, an immovableobject sacred to Zeus, signifying longevity, stability, and protection. Thecluster of epithets marks the unique hero (Kirk [1990] ad loc.). The shelteringtree further "Zeusifies" the son of Zeus.

In standard fashion for heroic battle-fodder, his psykhe, or life-breath,departs (AhIe 'VUxn; cf. 16.453), and the mist of death, ciXAVS, envelops him

56. The word "still" (ETl, 5.660-62), in "But still his father kept off evil death," hints at Sarpedon's immi­nent final difficulties.

57. Antitheos (662-64) is Sarpedon's commonest epithet (6x) but rarely attaches to any others in the Iliad.See Dee EHH (2000) #602, also Index, p. 497.

58. Cf. 7.60, Hdt. 2.55 with Lloyd's (1976) Book II commentary on this Herodotean passage.

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(5.696).59 So, the human doctor's intervention, indeed, does momentarily killhim (5.696-98). Boreas the North Wind god, however, breathes life back intoSarpedon and only him (l;WYPE1, 5.698, hapax legomenon for "arouses life").The unparalleled privilege reflects and flags Sarpedon's irregular status. Thisbreath from a deathless spirit miraculously fulfills an otherwise forlornhuman wish.

In Lykia, Sarpedon later says, all look on him and Glaukos as gods and sohonor them (12.312; cf. 6.108,22.394,434-35; 24.258-59). Sarpedon neverappears without glorification of his time. His famous speech to Glaukos(12.310-328) refers to premortem honors of good mutton, fine wine, and sep­arated land (TEIlEVOS, later "consecrated land"). That once Homeric portionfor the Iiving constituted part of postmortem hero cult in Homer's laterepoch.60 The early Dark-Age recipient's implied social contract for time, or"chiefly due," exchanged social, economic, and political privileges andauthority for associated military and political leadership, judicial, redistribu­tive, and other obligations. The Big Man's material benefits obscure laterrelated spiritual concepts of the Hero.

Further, Sarpedon informs Glaukos, in his explanation of the heroic mater­ial and ideological economy, that lTOVTES oE eEOVS WS Eiaop6wcH, "all[mortals] look up to [or behold] us as gods" (cf. 13.478, Ode 7.71, 8.173,15.520). This unusual and pregnant phrase (oddly ignored by Hainsworth[1993] ad loc.) may be understood as vaunting hyperbole, or, better, as a"latent expression" (Nagy [1990] 142). The phrase indicates Sarpedon'simpending immortalization. Special food and special land for heroes, the bestwine, and, after that, the mortal end. Then, TO aiilla, a special grave-site that"latently" indicates hero worship in the poet's age and later (Rohde [1925]121; Nagy [1990]). This meaningful claim to signs of high status augmentsthe approaching pathos. The hero faces Patroklos (425), while gods watch theencounter. Here's reasoned rhetorical question constrains Zeus to consign amortal to mortality (441-42; cf. the same verses spoken by Athene to Zeusabout Hektor: 22.179-80):

avopa BVTlTOV eOVTa nOAal nEnpUJ~EvoVaiolJ&~ eBEAEl) BaVOTOlO OVOTlXEOS e~avaAOoal;

[Bring] a man, already good as dead, back again to life?You wish to set him free from the dismal power of death?

59. Swooning Sarpedon alone regains his lost psykhe (avT'~ S' h.lTTVw81l/al-.lTTVvv81l: Aristarkhos vs.codd. 696-97; cf. Hektor's swoon, 14.418-39; Vermeule [1979] 7-11; Nagy [1990] 142). Kirk (1990) ad 5.696mentions Andromakhe' s swoon at 22.466-67, a comparable recovery from unconsciousness but not resultingfrom life-threatening physiological trauma. Thanatos and Hypnos, permanent and temporary loss of conscious­ness, are brother or "sister states" (Garland [1981] 43-60), for which Homer generally employs identical for­mula. Loss of psykhe occurs in only four of 240 Iliadic deaths, but three of them afflict major players:Sarpedon, Patroklos, and Hektor (16.505, 856; 22.362; also Hyperenor: 14.518; see Garland [1981] 48).Akhilleus claims that the psykhe will not return, Sarpedon's exception proves the rule for Homeric thanatology(9.408-9; 5.660-98, esp. 696-98).

60. See, e.g., Nagy (1990) 137 for cultic honors; Donlan (1989) 129-45, for the secular perks and duties.

DONALD LATEINER 57

(5.696).59 So, the human doctor's intervention, indeed, does momentarily killhim (5.696-98). Boreas the North Wind god, however, breathes life back intoSarpedon and only him (l;WYPE1, 5.698, hapax legomenon for "arouses life").The unparalleled privilege reflects and flags Sarpedon's irregular status. Thisbreath from a deathless spirit miraculously fulfills an otherwise forlornhuman wish.

In Lykia, Sarpedon later says, all look on him and Glaukos as gods and sohonor them (12.312; cf. 6.108,22.394,434-35; 24.258-59). Sarpedon neverappears without glorification of his time. His famous speech to Glaukos(12.310-328) refers to premortem honors of good mutton, fine wine, and sep­arated land (TEIlEVOS, later "consecrated land"). That once Homeric portionfor the Iiving constituted part of postmortem hero cult in Homer's laterepoch.60 The early Dark-Age recipient's implied social contract for time, or"chiefly due," exchanged social, economic, and political privileges andauthority for associated military and political leadership, judicial, redistribu­tive, and other obligations. The Big Man's material benefits obscure laterrelated spiritual concepts of the Hero.

Further, Sarpedon informs Glaukos, in his explanation of the heroic mater­ial and ideological economy, that lTOVTES oE eEOVS WS Eiaop6wcH, "all[mortals] look up to [or behold] us as gods" (cf. 13.478, Ode 7.71, 8.173,15.520). This unusual and pregnant phrase (oddly ignored by Hainsworth[1993] ad loc.) may be understood as vaunting hyperbole, or, better, as a"latent expression" (Nagy [1990] 142). The phrase indicates Sarpedon'simpending immortalization. Special food and special land for heroes, the bestwine, and, after that, the mortal end. Then, TO aiilla, a special grave-site that"latently" indicates hero worship in the poet's age and later (Rohde [1925]121; Nagy [1990]). This meaningful claim to signs of high status augmentsthe approaching pathos. The hero faces Patroklos (425), while gods watch theencounter. Here's reasoned rhetorical question constrains Zeus to consign amortal to mortality (441-42; cf. the same verses spoken by Athene to Zeusabout Hektor: 22.179-80):

avopa BVTlTOV eOVTa nOAal nEnpUJ~EvoVaiolJ&~ eBEAEl) BaVOTOlO OVOTlXEOS e~avaAOoal;

[Bring] a man, already good as dead, back again to life?You wish to set him free from the dismal power of death?

59. Swooning Sarpedon alone regains his lost psykhe (avT'~ S' h.lTTVw81l/al-.lTTVvv81l: Aristarkhos vs.codd. 696-97; cf. Hektor's swoon, 14.418-39; Vermeule [1979] 7-11; Nagy [1990] 142). Kirk (1990) ad 5.696mentions Andromakhe' s swoon at 22.466-67, a comparable recovery from unconsciousness but not resultingfrom life-threatening physiological trauma. Thanatos and Hypnos, permanent and temporary loss of conscious­ness, are brother or "sister states" (Garland [1981] 43-60), for which Homer generally employs identical for­mula. Loss of psykhe occurs in only four of 240 Iliadic deaths, but three of them afflict major players:Sarpedon, Patroklos, and Hektor (16.505, 856; 22.362; also Hyperenor: 14.518; see Garland [1981] 48).Akhilleus claims that the psykhe will not return, Sarpedon's exception proves the rule for Homeric thanatology(9.408-9; 5.660-98, esp. 696-98).

60. See, e.g., Nagy (1990) 137 for cultic honors; Donlan (1989) 129-45, for the secular perks and duties.

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Sarpedon disappears supernaturally from the battlefield to enter some newexistence.61Savior Apollo, who twice retrieves dead Sarpedon, is the panhel­lenic patron of hero cults (Rohde [1925] 131). Homer has .. formulated animmortality by means of the divine translation of the hero's body. Later herocult's practices explain Sarpedon' s unparalleled status. Although hero cultdoes not belong only to Sarpedon in the Iliad, it belongs most fully to him inthe present Trojan epic. Why Sarpedon? Because he is the only son of Zeusin the Trojan War; because his saga is old and beloved of Homer's audiencesin nearby Anatolian territories, where his hero cult probably continued; andbecause his exaltation exalts his victor Patroklos, number three on the list ofMost Valuable Warriors. The hero (so echt und so alt) of the ancient localLykian cult has been incorporated (with a narrative aetiology) into the mostsignificant poem of the heroic age (Wilamowitz [1920] 136).

Other elements suggest the elevation of Sarpedon's status. The root TARof his TOPXUElV sacred burial procedure may reflect the TAR of VEKTOp,62

the immortalizing unguent that preserves his body, and similarly, later,Patroklos' and Hektor's bodies (19.38-39,23.186-87; cf. above onambrosia). Nektar and ambrosia occur together, essentially synonymouswords for nonhuman commodities, sometimes comestibles. Both imply"stronger than death" or "immortal." Rubbing either on a body (re-)imbues itwith life-force (cf. 14.170-71; hom. h. Dem. 237; Od.18.192-94) or nourishessuprahuman types such as Here's horses and Akhilleus (5.775-77, 19.347,353). When Zeus demands that Sarpedon and his clothes be &1l~POTO, heinvests him and them (16.670, 680) with immortal characteristics laterapplied to cult heroes (Od. 24.59,7.260). Thus immortalizing vocabulary andformulae surround this transported, translated hero.

Hero cults, local in origin and limited in prestige, appear first on theAegean periphery. These hero cults included libations, that is, the pouring ofwine and blood sacrifices (Paus. 10.4.10), tables set with food offerings, bathpreparations, weeping and lamentation festivals, and generous feasts such asSarpedon describes to Glaukos.63 The heroon, a special grave in a specialprecinct, received blood sacrifices and votives. The Harpies (Death Angels,Body Snatchers) may be related to Sarpedon both linguistically and geo-

61. The poet eschews detailed description of this uncanny process, but he also avoids homely details ofheroic diet or the heroic "palace."

62. Nagy (1990) 139-41 produces the impressive linguistic connections with further attestations fromwestern Anatolia. Janko (1992) ad 456-57 disputes this Anatolian linguistic connection, but not Sarpedon'sLykian history as god and Ionian hero; cf. Chantraine (1999) ad loco Immisch (1915) IV, 389-413 surveysSarpedon in myth and cult, cols. 403-11 dealing with the Iliad, and cols. 393-400 detailing places associatedwith name and confmned cult (408). Delcourt (1962) 33-51 examines Sarpedon's cousin Glaukos, the sym­bolic signficance of contests with arrows and archers, and mitigated child-sacrifice rituals. Sarpedon's succes­sion myth, unmentioned in Homer, concerns brothers who compete for the throne of Lykia, includingSarpedon's and Glaukos' fathers (Eustathios, p. 894 and the Townley scholiast on Iliad 12.101). Immischasserts Blutregen (404) and Delcourt that Zeus "weeps a rain of blood" (34).

63. Cf. II. 23.174; Od. 11.36, 89, 99, 148, 153, 232, etc. describes Otherworld manipulations of bloodofferings to obtain heroic assistance; Burkert (1985) 205.

58 COLBY QUARTERLY

Sarpedon disappears supernaturally from the battlefield to enter some newexistence.61Savior Apollo, who twice retrieves dead Sarpedon, is the panhel­lenic patron of hero cults (Rohde [1925] 131). Homer has .. formulated animmortality by means of the divine translation of the hero's body. Later herocult's practices explain Sarpedon' s unparalleled status. Although hero cultdoes not belong only to Sarpedon in the Iliad, it belongs most fully to him inthe present Trojan epic. Why Sarpedon? Because he is the only son of Zeusin the Trojan War; because his saga is old and beloved of Homer's audiencesin nearby Anatolian territories, where his hero cult probably continued; andbecause his exaltation exalts his victor Patroklos, number three on the list ofMost Valuable Warriors. The hero (so echt und so alt) of the ancient localLykian cult has been incorporated (with a narrative aetiology) into the mostsignificant poem of the heroic age (Wilamowitz [1920] 136).

Other elements suggest the elevation of Sarpedon's status. The root TARof his TOPXUElV sacred burial procedure may reflect the TAR of VEKTOp,62

the immortalizing unguent that preserves his body, and similarly, later,Patroklos' and Hektor's bodies (19.38-39,23.186-87; cf. above onambrosia). Nektar and ambrosia occur together, essentially synonymouswords for nonhuman commodities, sometimes comestibles. Both imply"stronger than death" or "immortal." Rubbing either on a body (re-)imbues itwith life-force (cf. 14.170-71; hom. h. Dem. 237; Od.18.192-94) or nourishessuprahuman types such as Here's horses and Akhilleus (5.775-77, 19.347,353). When Zeus demands that Sarpedon and his clothes be &1l~POTO, heinvests him and them (16.670, 680) with immortal characteristics laterapplied to cult heroes (Od. 24.59,7.260). Thus immortalizing vocabulary andformulae surround this transported, translated hero.

Hero cults, local in origin and limited in prestige, appear first on theAegean periphery. These hero cults included libations, that is, the pouring ofwine and blood sacrifices (Paus. 10.4.10), tables set with food offerings, bathpreparations, weeping and lamentation festivals, and generous feasts such asSarpedon describes to Glaukos.63 The heroon, a special grave in a specialprecinct, received blood sacrifices and votives. The Harpies (Death Angels,Body Snatchers) may be related to Sarpedon both linguistically and geo-

61. The poet eschews detailed description of this uncanny process, but he also avoids homely details ofheroic diet or the heroic "palace."

62. Nagy (1990) 139-41 produces the impressive linguistic connections with further attestations fromwestern Anatolia. Janko (1992) ad 456-57 disputes this Anatolian linguistic connection, but not Sarpedon'sLykian history as god and Ionian hero; cf. Chantraine (1999) ad loco Immisch (1915) IV, 389-413 surveysSarpedon in myth and cult, cols. 403-11 dealing with the Iliad, and cols. 393-400 detailing places associatedwith name and confmned cult (408). Delcourt (1962) 33-51 examines Sarpedon's cousin Glaukos, the sym­bolic signficance of contests with arrows and archers, and mitigated child-sacrifice rituals. Sarpedon's succes­sion myth, unmentioned in Homer, concerns brothers who compete for the throne of Lykia, includingSarpedon's and Glaukos' fathers (Eustathios, p. 894 and the Townley scholiast on Iliad 12.101). Immischasserts Blutregen (404) and Delcourt that Zeus "weeps a rain of blood" (34).

63. Cf. II. 23.174; Od. 11.36, 89, 99, 148, 153, 232, etc. describes Otherworld manipulations of bloodofferings to obtain heroic assistance; Burkert (1985) 205.

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graphically (Vermeule [1979] 169-170).64 Divine parentage is neither suffi­cient nor necessary to achieve hero status, but it helps (Burkert [1985] 207).

Sarpedon and Memnon, his reflex in the Epic Cycle, both mythical Easternbarbarians, both receive divine protection and deliverance from the battle­field. 65 Sarpedon's great service and piteous death far from home defendingallies deserve honor and/or appeasement (Seaford [1994] 184).

Many heroes are "godlike" besides Sarpedon (16.638, 649; cf. aVTl8EoS,OlOS, 8EOElOnS, 8ElOS), but in his case Zeus as father empowers the widelyshared epithet (15.67,16.522; cf. 5.663, 683, 692).66 When immortal Zeus callshis mortal son "dearest of men" to him (433: <plATaTov Cxvopc':Jv) and Glaukoscalls him "Zeus' own son and best of men" (521-22: aVl1P 0' wplaTosoAu:JAE/ LaplTTlOwv, f1l0S vioS), these phrases, although formulaic, demandtheir due weight. The hero dies still angry, KTElVO~EVOS ~EvealvE (16.491),

and his psyche departs a second time. He is somehow dead before benign andhelpful Death arrives. 67 He remains dios, nevertheless, even when his bloodycorpse is unrecognizable. Zeus fixes his eye on the killing and the final strug­gle for the mortal remains (431, 638-46). The god's attention to a corpseshould focus all audiences-even the scholarly one. Only public, honorificlamentation and due burial are ever qualified by the sardonic, pathetic formula"the privilege of those who die," C/TO yap yepas eaTl 8aVOVTu:JV (16.457,675; 23.9, Od. 24.190).68 Thus Homer's honor of "bloody drops" before onlySarpedon's death may reflect subsequent, post-heroic, historical libation cere­monies and indefinite hero cult worship for both him and other ''Zeus-born''but now "dead" heroes, including Akhilleus.69

The unparalleled scene requires a reading open to the unusual. Death hasno attractions, as Akhilleus, alive and dead, opines (II. 9.312-20, Od. 11.488­91). The dead do not return, Patroklos noted. "Even Herakles died" wasAkhilleus' pre-heroized contribution to Hellenic proverbs (23.75-79; 18.117­

19). Heroic epic's only escape is the rare and inconsistent intimation70 of

64. Lykian Xanthos contains several heroa, e.g., the Nereid monument of ca. 400 and the Harpies nearby.65. Vermeule (1979) 150,244 n.4. Local cult possessiveness prefigures the parochialism of modem Greek

saints and the Panagia (Versnel [1981] 17).66. Griffin (1980) 84 makes this point for Sarpedon and Hektor (22.393-94, 432-36).67. 16.502, 644, 681-83. Vermeule (1979) 38, 149-50 discusses relevant vases' "death" iconography, e.g.,

Euphronios and Eukharides show Sleep and Death removing Sarpedon from the battlefield on theMetropolitan Museum krater in New York. von Bothmer (1981) 65, 76-78 discusses Sarpedon's rare appear­ances on vases despite his importance for Patroklos, therefore for Akhilleus, therefore for the Homeric Iliad.Memnon is a much more popular hero on the vases; Aiskhylos wrote plays about both (Keres andPsychostasia).

68. Garland (1982) 75-76 emphasizes survivors' concerns and pity (the psychology of the living). Hejustly notes the absence of evidence for Sarpedon's tomb cult, but hero cult extends rather than competes withdeath ritual (Seaford [1994] 115-16, 181). Argumenta e silentio are especially weak in marginal and poorlyexcavated Lykia.

69. Cf. 11.371-72, Od. 12.14; Nagy (1990) 140-42 on II. 19.347,353; 23.186-87; Heiden (1997) 230,n.28.

70. Rohde (1925) 141 n. 23 insists that the heroes are not gods, daimones, or half-gods, but even he, keep­ing Homer removed from hero cult, admits that some figures, e.g., Akhilleus, Teiresias, Odysseus, andSarpedon, inter alios, were worshipped as hero or god (ibid. 133, 150 n.87). Blood offerings, such as chthonicgods received, were given to warrior heroes (see Plut. Arist. 21 [detailed], Paus. 8.41.1); their protections weresought, and their heroo were visited for healing and prophetic revelations.

DONALD LATEINER 59

graphically (Vermeule [1979] 169-170).64 Divine parentage is neither suffi­cient nor necessary to achieve hero status, but it helps (Burkert [1985] 207).

Sarpedon and Memnon, his reflex in the Epic Cycle, both mythical Easternbarbarians, both receive divine protection and deliverance from the battle­field. 65 Sarpedon's great service and piteous death far from home defendingallies deserve honor and/or appeasement (Seaford [1994] 184).

Many heroes are "godlike" besides Sarpedon (16.638, 649; cf. aVTl8EoS,OlOS, 8EOElOnS, 8ElOS), but in his case Zeus as father empowers the widelyshared epithet (15.67,16.522; cf. 5.663, 683, 692).66 When immortal Zeus callshis mortal son "dearest of men" to him (433: <plATaTov Cxvopc':Jv) and Glaukoscalls him "Zeus' own son and best of men" (521-22: aVl1P 0' wplaTosoAu:JAE/ LaplTTlOwv, f1l0S vioS), these phrases, although formulaic, demandtheir due weight. The hero dies still angry, KTElVO~EVOS ~EvealvE (16.491),

and his psyche departs a second time. He is somehow dead before benign andhelpful Death arrives. 67 He remains dios, nevertheless, even when his bloodycorpse is unrecognizable. Zeus fixes his eye on the killing and the final strug­gle for the mortal remains (431, 638-46). The god's attention to a corpseshould focus all audiences-even the scholarly one. Only public, honorificlamentation and due burial are ever qualified by the sardonic, pathetic formula"the privilege of those who die," C/TO yap yepas eaTl 8aVOVTu:JV (16.457,675; 23.9, Od. 24.190).68 Thus Homer's honor of "bloody drops" before onlySarpedon's death may reflect subsequent, post-heroic, historical libation cere­monies and indefinite hero cult worship for both him and other ''Zeus-born''but now "dead" heroes, including Akhilleus.69

The unparalleled scene requires a reading open to the unusual. Death hasno attractions, as Akhilleus, alive and dead, opines (II. 9.312-20, Od. 11.488­91). The dead do not return, Patroklos noted. "Even Herakles died" wasAkhilleus' pre-heroized contribution to Hellenic proverbs (23.75-79; 18.117­

19). Heroic epic's only escape is the rare and inconsistent intimation70 of

64. Lykian Xanthos contains several heroa, e.g., the Nereid monument of ca. 400 and the Harpies nearby.65. Vermeule (1979) 150,244 n.4. Local cult possessiveness prefigures the parochialism of modem Greek

saints and the Panagia (Versnel [1981] 17).66. Griffin (1980) 84 makes this point for Sarpedon and Hektor (22.393-94, 432-36).67. 16.502, 644, 681-83. Vermeule (1979) 38, 149-50 discusses relevant vases' "death" iconography, e.g.,

Euphronios and Eukharides show Sleep and Death removing Sarpedon from the battlefield on theMetropolitan Museum krater in New York. von Bothmer (1981) 65, 76-78 discusses Sarpedon's rare appear­ances on vases despite his importance for Patroklos, therefore for Akhilleus, therefore for the Homeric Iliad.Memnon is a much more popular hero on the vases; Aiskhylos wrote plays about both (Keres andPsychostasia).

68. Garland (1982) 75-76 emphasizes survivors' concerns and pity (the psychology of the living). Hejustly notes the absence of evidence for Sarpedon's tomb cult, but hero cult extends rather than competes withdeath ritual (Seaford [1994] 115-16, 181). Argumenta e silentio are especially weak in marginal and poorlyexcavated Lykia.

69. Cf. 11.371-72, Od. 12.14; Nagy (1990) 140-42 on II. 19.347,353; 23.186-87; Heiden (1997) 230,n.28.

70. Rohde (1925) 141 n. 23 insists that the heroes are not gods, daimones, or half-gods, but even he, keep­ing Homer removed from hero cult, admits that some figures, e.g., Akhilleus, Teiresias, Odysseus, andSarpedon, inter alios, were worshipped as hero or god (ibid. 133, 150 n.87). Blood offerings, such as chthonicgods received, were given to warrior heroes (see Plut. Arist. 21 [detailed], Paus. 8.41.1); their protections weresought, and their heroo were visited for healing and prophetic revelations.

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heroic immortality, life beyond the grave-Menelaos' exclus"ive Elysion,Hesiod's "isles of the Blessed," Herakles' shade in Hades and apotheosis,and Erekhtheus' worship.71 Ancient audiences would catch epic references tothe regional hero cults of their day, even when abbreviated and allusive toavoid anachronistic reference to later, post-heroic epochs. Zeus' "bloodydrops" connect the realms (Johnston [1992] 98), suggesting the nature of"downward" interaction among the divine, heroic, and mortal worlds. Formsof "hero worship" from the sky-god Zeus, the validating paradigm of allfatherhood, paradoxically descends into the entirely human experience ofbereavement.

Conclusion. Zeus has ichor, not blood, but can weep. Zeus suffers ashumans do when fathers bury sons-in contravention of natural order.72

Sorrowing fatherhood is again extended, in a potent simile, to Akhilleus'grief for his beloved Patroklos.73 Homer enlarges this bitter but not uncom­mon human experience to Zeus' loss of his biological son. The bereaved par­ents' tears and laments compose a Homeric motif.74 The theme extends fromChryses to Priam, transiting through father Zeus' miracle-producing pain.Gods rarely show the moral awareness, or intervene in accord with the moralawareness, that humans impute to them (Winterbottom [1989] 40). This griefof Zeus, however, and, later, his sympathy for Hektor (17.200-06,24.66-76),index his "humanity," without bridging the chasm between death and death­less. Zeus acts contrary to nature; however he brings it about, bloodlike dropsreach earth that simultaneously recall human tears, red rain, and a libation ofblood. Rare Homeric divine "wonders" punctuate the Iliadic norm.

The gods are "vulnerable immortal[s]" (Vermeule [1979] 125, 118-27)."Longinos" asserts that Homer, recording the woundings of the gods, theirtears, and all their many passions (de sublime 9.7: Tpav~aTa, OOKpva,TTOSn TTall<pvpTa), "has done his best to make the Iliad's men gods andgods men" (avSpwTToVS oaov eTT\ Tij OVVO~El SEOUS lTElTOlTlKEval, TOUSSEOUS av8pwlTovS). Instead of experiencing unhappy death, the gods suffereverlasting sorrow (aTvXlav aiwvlav), as befalls Zeus with Sarpedon.Perhaps "Longinus" did not quote 16.459 because it both affirms and discon­firms his paradox. It affirms the observation by reporting Sarpedon's transla­tion skyward and Zeus' inconsolable grief with tearful expression; but itmomentarily disconfirms the idea by collapsing the terms for once.Sarpedon's immortalization collapses any clear line between mortals andimmortals, like the premortem grieving of immortal Thetis for her doomedson Akhilleus.

71. Od. 4.563-70 and 11.601-4 mentions two of Zeus' sons-in-law; II. 2.547-51; Hes. Opera 167-72 formore heroes.

72. 23.222-23; cf. Kroisos' sentiments speaking to Kyros, Hdt. 1.87.4. "[T]he bereaved father is a domi­nant figure in the [Iliad's] plot from Chryses to Priam" (Griffin [1980] 123).

73. Patroklos and Sarpedon have linked destinies (15.64-67), share an unusual simile (16.428-30), anddedication to the Heroic code (Stanley [1993] 172-74; Baltes 1983).

74.5.155-56,13.658,14.501-2,17.37; 24.85-86,160,505-12; Griffin (1980) 123-27; Janko (1992) ad loco

60 COLBY QUARTERLY

heroic immortality, life beyond the grave-Menelaos' exclus"ive Elysion,Hesiod's "isles of the Blessed," Herakles' shade in Hades and apotheosis,and Erekhtheus' worship.71 Ancient audiences would catch epic references tothe regional hero cults of their day, even when abbreviated and allusive toavoid anachronistic reference to later, post-heroic epochs. Zeus' "bloodydrops" connect the realms (Johnston [1992] 98), suggesting the nature of"downward" interaction among the divine, heroic, and mortal worlds. Formsof "hero worship" from the sky-god Zeus, the validating paradigm of allfatherhood, paradoxically descends into the entirely human experience ofbereavement.

Conclusion. Zeus has ichor, not blood, but can weep. Zeus suffers ashumans do when fathers bury sons-in contravention of natural order.72

Sorrowing fatherhood is again extended, in a potent simile, to Akhilleus'grief for his beloved Patroklos.73 Homer enlarges this bitter but not uncom­mon human experience to Zeus' loss of his biological son. The bereaved par­ents' tears and laments compose a Homeric motif.74 The theme extends fromChryses to Priam, transiting through father Zeus' miracle-producing pain.Gods rarely show the moral awareness, or intervene in accord with the moralawareness, that humans impute to them (Winterbottom [1989] 40). This griefof Zeus, however, and, later, his sympathy for Hektor (17.200-06,24.66-76),index his "humanity," without bridging the chasm between death and death­less. Zeus acts contrary to nature; however he brings it about, bloodlike dropsreach earth that simultaneously recall human tears, red rain, and a libation ofblood. Rare Homeric divine "wonders" punctuate the Iliadic norm.

The gods are "vulnerable immortal[s]" (Vermeule [1979] 125, 118-27)."Longinos" asserts that Homer, recording the woundings of the gods, theirtears, and all their many passions (de sublime 9.7: Tpav~aTa, OOKpva,TTOSn TTall<pvpTa), "has done his best to make the Iliad's men gods andgods men" (avSpwTToVS oaov eTT\ Tij OVVO~El SEOUS lTElTOlTlKEval, TOUSSEOUS av8pwlTovS). Instead of experiencing unhappy death, the gods suffereverlasting sorrow (aTvXlav aiwvlav), as befalls Zeus with Sarpedon.Perhaps "Longinus" did not quote 16.459 because it both affirms and discon­firms his paradox. It affirms the observation by reporting Sarpedon's transla­tion skyward and Zeus' inconsolable grief with tearful expression; but itmomentarily disconfirms the idea by collapsing the terms for once.Sarpedon's immortalization collapses any clear line between mortals andimmortals, like the premortem grieving of immortal Thetis for her doomedson Akhilleus.

71. Od. 4.563-70 and 11.601-4 mentions two of Zeus' sons-in-law; II. 2.547-51; Hes. Opera 167-72 formore heroes.

72. 23.222-23; cf. Kroisos' sentiments speaking to Kyros, Hdt. 1.87.4. "[T]he bereaved father is a domi­nant figure in the [Iliad's] plot from Chryses to Priam" (Griffin [1980] 123).

73. Patroklos and Sarpedon have linked destinies (15.64-67), share an unusual simile (16.428-30), anddedication to the Heroic code (Stanley [1993] 172-74; Baltes 1983).

74.5.155-56,13.658,14.501-2,17.37; 24.85-86,160,505-12; Griffin (1980) 123-27; Janko (1992) ad loco

19

Lateiner: Pouring Bloody Drops (Iliad 16.459): The Grief of Zeus

Published by Digital Commons @ Colby, 2002

DONALD LATEINER 61

Sarpedon's aristeia starts with Zeus' bloodlike drops honoring his son andcloses with his nocturnal precipitate, ghastly murk.75 The venue and purposeof bloodlike drops and a darkening heaven is similar: to give honor to thebereft god's son (16.460, 567-68):

Zeus 0' En, VUKT' OAOnV Tclvvoe KpaTepij VOj.llVU,o<ppa <plA~ nepl nalo) l-lclXTJS OAOOS novos elll.

Zeus stretched deadly murk over the strong battleso that the deadly suffering of battle would surround his son.76

Fierce fighting and other deaths intensify the power of Zeus' child sacrifice(cf. Janko [1992] ad 419-683; introd. p. 2; Stanley [1993] 173). Sarpedon'sdeath is ringed and ratified by meteorological marvels. Zeus' involvementmarks significance and cues audiences' responses. Sarpedon represents Zeus'Achilles' heel, his paradoxical, surrogate mortality.

Zeus does not alter aisa or moira, but he saves his preeminent son from onedeath, orders a lesser god to breathe life back into him (Book 5), and sees tohis time in life as basileus (Book 12) and kleos in death as cult hero (Book 16).He has his corpse removed from the carnage and arranges his more thanhuman, epichoric cult. Sarpedon dies twice as he lived twice. Homer impliesan immortalized future existence-at Zeus' desire, with Here's limited assent,by means of Apollo's immortalizing creams and demigods Hypnos andThanatos' celestial removal service. Homer predicts honors from subsequentgenerations, even without a "consoling suggestion of a happier afterlife."77

The limits hold, nevertheless. A grim image-the bloody drops-conveysa broad sympathy. The harmonic resonance of the earth uncannily laughing atthe noisy, massing Akhaians (19.357-64: yEAaooe oE naoa TTep\ X8wv; cf.Theog. 40, hom. h. Dem. 14, hom. h. Ap. 118) finds an apt counterpart in theharmonic sympathy of both grieving Zeus and his son-each in his ownway-sending forth bloody drops. Zeus is the god of pity in the Iliad, the par­adigm of bereavement.78 No "cold blooded" god would assert, "Mortals mat­ter to me, especially when [or because] they die" (20.21): IJEAOVOl IJOlOAAvlJeVOl TTep. Hard-bitten Homeric heroes know-or hope-that this istrue (9.172, 24.301).79

75. Gods can darken the air (5.506-8 [Ares], 21.6-7 [Here]) or clear it (15.668-73 [AtheneD. Zeus doesboth when evoking and answering Aias' fervent prayer (17.268-70 [n.b. the verb: Xeu '], 643-50; cf. 17.547­50). Edwards (1991), Janko (1992) ad locc. on Athene's weather acts. Scholiasts AbT view the passages in 16and 17 as intended to show grief and to "honor the dead." Gods show affection in their own unexpectableways.

76. Lattimore translates the two examples of 6AOO~ as "ghastly" frrst and then "deadly"-thus losing theidentity of epithets.

77. West (1988) ad Od. 4.563ff. Minos, known elsewhere (Hesiod Cat. 140 ff. and Aiskhylos fro 99) asSarpedon's brother, also departed life on earth for a significant afterlife.

78.Il. 15.12,44; 16.431; 17.441,644-51; 17.198-205; 19.340-48; 22.168-70; 24.332. Zeus can appearelsewhere as an indifferent or amused spectator of the human comedy (e.g., 8.51, 7.459-63) and, as often, ofthe divine comedy (20.23, 21.388 and 508, but cf. 5.890-91).

79. Bruce Heiden and Sarah I. Johnston of the Classics department at the Ohio State University, NatashaSankovitch, Esq., helpful anonymous readers, and my editor and friend Hanna Roisman improved this paper.With due thanks, I formulaically note that they are blameless for any errors or circular arguments that readersdiscover.

DONALD LATEINER 61

Sarpedon's aristeia starts with Zeus' bloodlike drops honoring his son andcloses with his nocturnal precipitate, ghastly murk.75 The venue and purposeof bloodlike drops and a darkening heaven is similar: to give honor to thebereft god's son (16.460, 567-68):

Zeus 0' En, VUKT' OAOnV Tclvvoe KpaTepij VOj.llVU,o<ppa <plA~ nepl nalo) l-lclXTJS OAOOS novos elll.

Zeus stretched deadly murk over the strong battleso that the deadly suffering of battle would surround his son.76

Fierce fighting and other deaths intensify the power of Zeus' child sacrifice(cf. Janko [1992] ad 419-683; introd. p. 2; Stanley [1993] 173). Sarpedon'sdeath is ringed and ratified by meteorological marvels. Zeus' involvementmarks significance and cues audiences' responses. Sarpedon represents Zeus'Achilles' heel, his paradoxical, surrogate mortality.

Zeus does not alter aisa or moira, but he saves his preeminent son from onedeath, orders a lesser god to breathe life back into him (Book 5), and sees tohis time in life as basileus (Book 12) and kleos in death as cult hero (Book 16).He has his corpse removed from the carnage and arranges his more thanhuman, epichoric cult. Sarpedon dies twice as he lived twice. Homer impliesan immortalized future existence-at Zeus' desire, with Here's limited assent,by means of Apollo's immortalizing creams and demigods Hypnos andThanatos' celestial removal service. Homer predicts honors from subsequentgenerations, even without a "consoling suggestion of a happier afterlife."77

The limits hold, nevertheless. A grim image-the bloody drops-conveysa broad sympathy. The harmonic resonance of the earth uncannily laughing atthe noisy, massing Akhaians (19.357-64: yEAaooe oE naoa TTep\ X8wv; cf.Theog. 40, hom. h. Dem. 14, hom. h. Ap. 118) finds an apt counterpart in theharmonic sympathy of both grieving Zeus and his son-each in his ownway-sending forth bloody drops. Zeus is the god of pity in the Iliad, the par­adigm of bereavement.78 No "cold blooded" god would assert, "Mortals mat­ter to me, especially when [or because] they die" (20.21): IJEAOVOl IJOlOAAvlJeVOl TTep. Hard-bitten Homeric heroes know-or hope-that this istrue (9.172, 24.301).79

75. Gods can darken the air (5.506-8 [Ares], 21.6-7 [Here]) or clear it (15.668-73 [AtheneD. Zeus doesboth when evoking and answering Aias' fervent prayer (17.268-70 [n.b. the verb: Xeu '], 643-50; cf. 17.547­50). Edwards (1991), Janko (1992) ad locc. on Athene's weather acts. Scholiasts AbT view the passages in 16and 17 as intended to show grief and to "honor the dead." Gods show affection in their own unexpectableways.

76. Lattimore translates the two examples of 6AOO~ as "ghastly" frrst and then "deadly"-thus losing theidentity of epithets.

77. West (1988) ad Od. 4.563ff. Minos, known elsewhere (Hesiod Cat. 140 ff. and Aiskhylos fro 99) asSarpedon's brother, also departed life on earth for a significant afterlife.

78.Il. 15.12,44; 16.431; 17.441,644-51; 17.198-205; 19.340-48; 22.168-70; 24.332. Zeus can appearelsewhere as an indifferent or amused spectator of the human comedy (e.g., 8.51, 7.459-63) and, as often, ofthe divine comedy (20.23, 21.388 and 508, but cf. 5.890-91).

79. Bruce Heiden and Sarah I. Johnston of the Classics department at the Ohio State University, NatashaSankovitch, Esq., helpful anonymous readers, and my editor and friend Hanna Roisman improved this paper.With due thanks, I formulaically note that they are blameless for any errors or circular arguments that readersdiscover.

20

Colby Quarterly, Vol. 38, Iss. 1 [2002], Art. 6

https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/cq/vol38/iss1/6